Race-ing Moral Formation

This critical volume incorporates the experiences of African Americans into the discourse on moral-development theory and moral education. Featuring cutting-edge essays, this book challenges widely held beliefs and offers new perspectives on moral reasoning.

Features:

• A framework for interpreting the psychology of moral formation among African-American children, adolescents, and adults.
• Practical, pedagogical perspectives on promoting care, justice, and moral formation in our schools, grounded in a multiracial understanding of moral education.
• Blends the separate literatures on African American education and on moral education.
• Investigates distinct moral dilemmas that face the African American community, such as closing the education achievement gap, affirmative action, and the failure of academic institutions to be responsive to the needs of African American children.

Vanessa Siddle Walker is the Winship Distinguished Research Professor in the Division of Educational Studies at Emory University. John R. Snarey is Professor of Human Development and Ethics in the Candler School of Theology and the Department of Psychology at Emory University.

“With careful scrutiny and loving exactitude, (these authors) have uncovered the moral treasures of a people.”
—From the Foreword by Carol Gilligan and Janie Ward

" Race-ing Moral Formation makes an extraordinary contribution. With historical and developmental sensitivity, this exceptional volume provides a rich analysis of race and moral behavior in everyday experience.”
—Margaret Beale Spencer, University of Pennsylvania

“Groundbreaking and riveting, this is an essential book for any course on moral development and moral education that seeks to explore a major lacuna in moral psychology—the intersection of race and moral formation.”
—Andrew Garrod, Dartmouth College.

“Drawing upon the African American experience, this remarkable book delivers a critical message: In a truly moral community, justice and caring are its mutual, not separate, foundations.”
—Ralph Edwards, coauthor of Black Power/White Power in Public Education

“I learned a lot from this book. It is a terrific resource for teachers and a significant contribution to the literature on caring and justice.”
—Nel Noddings, Stanford University

“As each of us struggle for integrity in a complicated world, Race-ing Moral Formation should prove useful across a range of settings, from family counseling and classroom discussion to international efforts to negotiate peace.”
—From the Epilogue by Charles D. Blakeney and Ronnie Frankel Blakeney