Moral Matters

Most of us agree that moral issues matter, but how do they fit into the context of our schools? Since A Nation at Risk, most educators and policymakers have focused on the academic dimensions of schooling governed by standards and testing. This timely book explores the ways that committed K–12 educators have attempted to make the moral visible in American schooling over the past 25 years. The authors look at their efforts, using an analytic framework that distinguishes five possible ways that the moral and the academic can be related in schooling.

Book Features:

• A useful survey of moral education that enables the reader to arrive at personal judgments about the value and weaknesses of various approaches.
• Case studies that illustrate the moral education of students, the moral component of teachers’ work, and the moral dimensions of school structure.
• A mixture of philosophical analysis and attention to school practice suitable for courses and accessible to teachers, administrators, policymakers, and parents.

Barbara S. Stengel is a professor of educational foundations at Millersville University (Pennsylvania). Alan R. Tom recently retired from the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a professor of education.

“Stengel and Tom give us an original and highly useful approach to moral education—one that integrates the language of moral education and academics. Interesting, accessible, and a pleasure to read.”
Nel Noddings, Lee L. Jacks Professor of Child Education Emerita, Stanford University.

"Stengel and Tom render visible the moral aspects of education by examining a fascinating array of contemporary programs and institutions. This timely work will be useful to scholars and practitioners who seek a richer moral and intellectual language for education than what the current ethos provides."
— David T. Hansen, Teachers College, Columbia University