Júlia Szekszárdi, Attila Horváth H., Marianna Buda and Ildikó Simonfalvi: Moral socialisation of adolescent

Problems of postmodern education appear in their most acute form in moral education. The authors believe that in this area, the school must primarily prepare students for responsible decision-making. Based on the Kohlbergian paradigm, which the literature shows to be appropriate and effective in developing childrens moral competence, the study follows Ibolya Szilágyi Vári's classroom-based experiment for the Hungarian adaptation of the Just Community model. In the first phase of the research a questionnaire was administered to a representative sample in order to gather data on the actual state of moral thinking of Hungarian adolescents. The analysis of the data showed that relatively few students confess their own personal views and dare to contradict the will of the group, while they do not necessarily consider the latter obligatory regarding themselves. They do not find it ethically problematic to seize incidental opportunities to promote their own interests, even at their peers' disadvantage. A general distrust characterises many adolescents in the sample, as well as a refusal to accept responsibility. The decline of the importance of the class as a community in the socialisation of adolescents is manifest in the palpable weakening of solidarity with each other. The next phase of the research is the development of, a theoretically and practically applicable model which can be an instrument to describe the moral competence of children and adolescents and to identify the trends of its development.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 100. Number 4. 473-498. (2000)

Address for correspondence: Szekszárdi Júlia és Horváth H. Attila, Veszprémi Egyetem Pedagógiai Tanszék, H-8200 Veszprém, Wartha Vincze út. 1., Buda Marianna és Simonfalvi Ildikó, H-4010 Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1.

 
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