Teacher educators' conceptions of the responsibility of teachers as moral educators

Studies have shown that although teachers find that their job requires them to engage in moral education on a day-to-day basis, they received little or no preparation for this task in their preservice teacher training programs. To explore reasons for this gap between practice and training, this study investigated the thinking of 30 teacher educators' views on the role of teacher as moral educator, the bases for their thinking, and the treatment of their views in preservice courses. The study analyzed the views of the subjects on the basis of several criteria, including conventional issues addressed by moral philosophy such as the nature of moral knowledge. Is moral knowledge universal or relative, social or individual, content or process? Seven models for engaging in moral education emerged from the subjects' views which I have characterized as: The Character Education Model, The Civics Model, The Philosophy Model, The Personal Influence Model, The Social Justice Model, The Process Model, and The Anti-Moral Education Model.;These models fall into two groups. The first three models base the teacher's role as moral educator on an authoritative and normative view of the Good into which the young ought to be initiated. The four other models base the role of the teacher on a subjective, relative, and privatized view of the Good which is neither normative nor authoritative and thus provides the teacher and student no basis for moral reflection or action. The study proposes that these differences may reflect a transition in society from viewing the Good in terms of transcendent virtues to viewing the Good in terms of values which are subjective and relative, a matter of preference or choice.