Educators as Moral Models: Assessing the Moral Work of Teaching Within an ECE (Early Childhood Educators) Setting

• In Event: Roundtable Session 52
  In Roundtable Session: Educating Moral Educators

Abstract

This paper explores the beliefs that pre-service early childhood educators (ECE’s) have about the moral work of teaching (MWT). Placed against a backdrop of Sanger & Osguthorpe’s (2005, 2011) MWT framework, the paper explores the psychological, moral and educational assumptions that ECE candidates have about moral education and development. Specific attention is given the beliefs that participants have about the nature and function of modeling as a way of supporting moral development and its application to their professional practice. Findings highlight a confirmed belief in the role that ECE’s play as moral educators for children and the value of modeling and direct instruction as tools for supporting moral development.

Author

• Shawn Lennie, OISE/University of Toronto