Colloque

The perils of dialogue in moral education

Kevin Mcdonough

Membre a labase

Kevin Mcdonough

Résumé de la communication

The paper addresses a quandary that faces scholarly proponents of dialogue in moral education. First, the claim that ongoing dialogue is central to children’s moral education is perhaps one of the few points of agreement among contemporary educational scholars writing from various and conflicting ideological viewpoints. On the other hand, many parents and scholars are suspicious of assigning the pedagogical task of moral dialogue to schools (especially public schools). This worry is at least partly fuelled by the very real possibility that the inherently unpredictable process of engaging in moral dialogue in a morally diverse school setting might lead children away from moral truth and into moral error. This conundrum is not new, but it is argued that proponents of dialogue in moral education need to take the problem more seriously, and understand its various forms more clearly, than they typically do. As such, the paper outlines and examines several philosophical articulations of the problem, focussing on versions that are especially pertinent to Quebec’s ERC program. It suggests that these criticisms, while answerable by proponents of moral dialogue, are more compelling than is commonly understood. The paper concludes with some general suggestions about how a more serious attempt to understand and address such criticisms might deepen and enrich the process of dialogue in moral education even if the hazards of dialogical moral education cannot be completely avoided.

Résumé du colloque

Conférence d'ouverture : Anita Caron, professeure émérite (Département de sciences des religions, UQÀM). Anita Caron a joué un rôle majeur dans le développement de l'éducation éthique au Québec. Lancement du Groupe de recherche en éducation éthique (GREE): Recherche sur l'éducation éthique dans la Francophonie. Équipe de chercheurs: Nancy Bouchard, responsable (directrice du Département de sciences des religions,UQÀM), Marie-France Daniel, cochercheure (professeure, Université de Montréa), Claude Gendron, cochercheure (professeure, UQTR), Jean-Claude Desruisseaux, cochercheur (professeur, UQO), Lori Rabinovitch, chercheure collaboratrice.