The moral is in the practice

How do teachers legitimize their classroom interactions in terms of educational values and ideals?

“…This observation concurs with the experience in this study; the teachers involved were not likely to talk about them in a naturalistic manner, or that they want their pupils to be freed from a false consciousness in order for them to bring about social change. The observation that teachers do not tend to draw on an external corpus of predefined values when interpreting their classroom interactions is consistent with Hansen's (1998) powerful argument that the moral is embedded in the practice itself:…”

The pedagogical imperative of values education

“…By this, we proffer that, first, it has become an imperative that teachers and schools engage in pedagogical practice designed to enhance competencies necessary for personal wellbeing and social cohesion, and, second, that by its very nature such educational activity constitutes values education by whichever name in order to achieve this end effectively. Furthermore, any perception that values education is germane only to those school systems, such as private and religious schools, where values and character formation is an acknowledged and anticipated part of their educational agenda and practice, ignores the findings of current research that effective learning in any school or learning context is expedited by explicit emphasis on the intrinsic moral nature of quality teaching and schooling (Bryk 1988;Carr 2005Carr , 2006Halliday 1998;Hansen 1998;Lovat and Clement 2008).…”

“…Even when teacher practice is technically questionable, a positive teacher-student relationship is able to produce superior outcomes (Louden et al 2005). Furthermore, international scholars like Bryk (1988), Carr (2005Carr ( , 2006, Halliday (1998), Hansen (1998), Hattie (2004), Noddings (1997) and Van Petegem et al (2008) indicate the crucial importance of a teacher's personal values and the manner in which they are enacted in fostering effective student engagement in learning.…”

Expressive Morality in a Collaborative Learning Activity: A Case Study in the Creation of Moral Meaning

“…Goodlad et al, 1990;Hansen, 1998;Jackson et al, 1993;Johnston et al, 1998;Tom, 1984). For Dewey and those who have followed, morality is something that inheres in all teaching, and is distinct from overt instruction in morals.…”