附外文文献原文

The influence of moral education on the personal worldview of students

Abstract：This article researches whether approaches to moral education aim to influence the development of the personal worldview of students. An example of a Dutch moral education programme is presented and the findings are used to analyse various approaches to moral education. Our analysis demonstrates that every approach aims to influence the personal worldview of students because of underlying ontological beliefs. This is the inevitable and minimal influence a moral education approach has on personal worldview. Our analysis also demonstrates that two approaches go further: Aristotle’s virtue ethics and Kantian deontological ethics. Both aim to contribute to the personal worldview development because they aim to influence the broad moral views (ethical and teleological matters) students have.

Keywords: personal worldview, broad morality, virtue ethics, deontological ethics

In discussions about religion in public education the premise often defended is that such schools should not aim to influence the religious convictions of their pupils nor favour a particular religion.1 It is argued that state schools should be neutral when it comes to religion. In state schools in the United States (US), for instance, teachers are not allowed to participate in religious activities or advocate particular religious views when they are teaching. They are discouraged from sharing their personal religious views with students. This does not mean that religion is excluded from the state classroom’s curriculum in the US. It may be taught in a knowledgebased manner. State schools may for example teach courses in comparative religion or teach the Bible as literature. The law also permits private religious activities in and around the state school. For example, students are allowed to discuss their religious views with their fellow students and to organise prayer groups as an extracurricular activity. It is, however, not an educational aim to transmit religious views to students (Feinberg & Layton, 2013; Feinberg, 2014; U.S. Department of education: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/religionandschools/prayer_guidance.html).

In the Netherlands we find a comparable situation: state school teachers are legally bound to provide their students with knowledge about and understanding of religious and non-religious worldviews but have no role in furthering particular commitments in pupils. Recently a debate started on the question whether state schools should do more than providing knowledge about religions. Some schools and state school organisations state that they should contribute to the identity development of their students by paying attention to the personal views and beliefs pupils have about meaning of life without imposing certain specific religious views on them (Veugelers, 2008; Lammers, 2013; Miedema, 2013; Veugelers & Oostdijk, 2013).

In the first example, the discussion focuses mainly on the position of religion in state schools. However, as the second example makes clear, it seems that only part of the issue is being dealt with. Firstly, many people have non-religious views and beliefs about meaning of life. These views and beliefs are not taken into account when the focus is on religious convictions in education only. Secondly, it is quite possible that the education state schools provide has an influence on personal meaning-making views of pupils, even if they do not intend to contribute to the development of (religious) worldviews of their pupils. However, in that case it is possible that this has consequences for religious beliefs of students as well. We propose that this influence is particularly likely in moral education provided by schools. In many countries the state requires state schools to provide moral education. The values and ideals that are integral to popular moral educational approaches today, such as a morally good character, democratic values or a positive attitude to persity, are not specifically religious. The aim of many approaches to moral education is not to transmit religious views to students, but to raise morally astute adults who have assimilated these values into their thinking and acting and to prepare them in this way for participating in society. However, this does not mean that there is no (intended) influence on the personal views and beliefs pupils have about meaning-making.