Teaching about the Moral Classroom: Infusing the moral imagination into teacher education

The Moral Imagination in Pre-service Teachers’ Ethical Reasoning

“…We began with Joseph's (2003) five main categories for coding, yet aimed to build a more nuanced picture of these components. Instances invoking the moral imagination were singly coded into the five categories provided by Joseph; where a contribution could fit across one or more categories, it was coded into the category of best fit.…”

“…The data analysed builds on the model of moral imagination described by Joseph (2003) but also reveals the struggle to achieve this challenging but valuable educational aim. Perception was the most vigorous dimension of the moral imagination demonstrated by participants.…”

“…Using the framework developed by Joseph (2003), we sought to apply these discrete categories of the moral imagination, as well as to explore some of its blind spots and limitations.…”

“…Of all the categories described by Joseph (2003), emotion was the category that occurred the least across all sessions, appearing an average of once in each session. It was also the most difficult to code.…”

“…From this, moral education hence entails learning to utilise certain imaginative capacities to work through the complex territory of laws, codes of ethics and various stakeholder positions, including our own, in the educative domain. Joseph (2003) posits the advantages of drawing on the notion of the moral imagination as one possibility for drawing together accounts of the moral nature of teaching that spans reflective practice, professional ethics, values spirituality, moral curriculum, and that emphasises moral praxis. Werhane (1999) defines the concept of moral imagination as: "The ability in particular circumstances to discover and evaluate possibilities, not merely determined by that circumstance, or limited by its operative mental models, or framed by a set of rules, or rule governed concerns" (Werhane 1999, p. 93).…”