Development of Environmental and Socio-moral Reasoning in Early Childhood: A Research in Progress

• In Event: Building Character in Schools

Abstract

The purpose of current study is to determine whether moral reasoning in both the environmental and social domains is based on concern for the welfare and/or rights of others. This research-in-progress aims to collect data from fifty children from three to five years of age enrolled in preschools in a medium-sized Midwestern City, their parents, and their teachers. Children are interviewed about their sociomoral and environmental moral reasoning, empathy for peers and nature, and affinity for nature. Parents and teachers complete a survey of their perceptions of nature. Parents report on children’s experiences in nature while not at school, and teachers report on experiences in nature and environmental education while at school. These diverse measures will allow us to examine the influence of children’s direct experiences in natural environments as well as socialization on their affinity for nature and environmental moral reasoning, as well as the associations between sociomoral and environmental moral reasoning.

Authors

• Julia Torquati, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Ibrahim Acar, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Elsa Escalante, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Julia Kroeker, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Blair Kalinski, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Merveille Tshita, University of Nebraska-Lincoln