Does classic school curriculum contribute to morality? Integrating school curriculum with moral and intellectual education

Arik Segev

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Phillip Cam recently published a study on the separation between the teaching and learning of classic school curriculum (CSC) on the one hand and morality on the other. He suggests an approach to integrate them. The goal of this article was to suggest a complementary alternative approach, to Cam’s. Based on a MacIntyrean paradigm, I argue that seeing the CSC (such as math, biology, literature and history) as ‘practices’ would also enable that integration. This approach differs from the one proposed by Cam, since it preserves the structure of the CSC. Nevertheless, I will demonstrate how this approach leads to a number of changes in the formation, teaching and learning of school curriculum. As background, I will briefly describe R.S. Peters’ attempt to find an internal justification for the teaching and learning of school curriculum and point to some weaknesses it contains. My proposal can be understood as deriving from the same principle, of another famous educational initiative, Mortimer Adler’s ‘Great Book Project’. Toward the end of the article, I will demonstrate why Adler’s project differs from mine, and why it does not meet the goal of integrating learning school curriculum with moral education.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)89-98
Number of pages10
JournalEducational Philosophy and Theory
Volume49
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Jan 2017

Keywords

  • Alasdair MacIntyre
  • School curriculum
  • liberalism
  • morality
  • philosophy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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