Transcript Moral Education by Emile Durkheim

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Eli Kean | TE982 | March 27, 2013
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1858-1917
France
Emphasized empirical
data
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Section 1: The Elements of Morality
Section 2: How to Develop Elements of Morality in the Child
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Establish sociology as a new academic
discipline
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Analyze how societies could maintain their
integrity and coherence in the modern era
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Explore The practical implications of
scientific knowledge
 Morality
results from immersion
in a social group, and manifests
itself in a respect for that group
 Education is a social
phenomenon and consists of a
systematic socialization of the
young generation.
 Moral education is the process
of internalizing morality into each
new generation.
 Morality
is “a comprehensive system of
prohibitions” (42) composed of three elements:
o Discipline (constraining egoistic impulses)
o Attachment (the voluntary willingness to be committed to
groups)
o Autonomy (individual responsibility)
 Education
provides children with these three moral
tools needed to function in society.
 Discipline
functions to develop habits and
“determine conduct, to fix it, [and] to
eliminate…individual arbitrariness"
 Discipline teaches children to suppress their
impulses and be consistent in their conduct
 Children need to “obey a moral precept out of
respect” to its superior power over them
 “...Moral
life only begins where the collective life
beings.“
 Through attachment to groups, individuals reach a
moral consciousness in which they develop an
interest in seeking justice and preventing suffering
 The school must function to link children to social
groups such that they can learn moral values
 Children
should have an awareness or
“consciousness” of the reasons for moral conduct.
 This consciousness provides the autonomy to
understand and explain morality and moral
behavior.
 Teachers should foster autonomy among their
students by not preaching or indoctrinating, but
explaining morality.
 Individuals
define morality individually
through their struggles to arrive at fair
solutions
 Contrary to Durkheim, Piaget believed
that autonomy must involve
spontaneous and creative initiative as
well as exploration
 Teachers should encourage students’
personal discovery through problem
solving
 Kohlberg
attempted to reconcile
the differences in orientation
that existed between the
theories of moral growth held by
Piaget and Durkheim.
 “Just community" schools
approach
o Intended to enhance students'
moral development by offering
them the chance to participate in
a democratic community
 For
Durkheim, individuals have connections to the
state/social institution, but not necessarily to each
other
 Pluralism plays a vital role in contributing to
diversity and dynamism in the political community.
 Durkheim supported a deliberative democratic
community and believed that this form of
community could bring about social change
 Democratic
deliberation encourages the
investigation of “uncharted customs, obscure
sentiments and prejudices that evade
investigation” (p. 89)
 Deliberation is a means to conduct checks and
balances on state operations
 The more democratic a society, “the more that
deliberation and reflection and a critical spirit play
a considerable part in the courses of public affairs”
 Durkheim
does not address the contribution of
peer social interaction in developing autonomy
 Durkheim does not elaborate on the rules involved
in fostering moral development
 Durkheim’s theory lacks empirical support
 Durkheim’s ideas justify 'civic education‘ where
public educational systems are used to
indoctrinate citizens
 Durkheim is reductionist to the collective level
1.
How does Durkheim align or conflict with our course’s
authors?
2.
What other critiques do you have of Durkheim’s ideas?
3.
How is moral education similar to/different from
democratic education?
4.
Does democratic education contain an element of
indoctrination?