Moral Education - Redefining and transforming

The article by Martin (1987) looks at the need for moral education to foster generative love, and to do that, education must be redefined, and moral education requires a transformation, not just simple additives, such as the inclusion of women, in subject-matter. Though dated, a lot of the ideas are applicable in countries where 'traditional' gender roles are still prevalent.

Martin (1987) proposes that programs such as Lifeline, which act to counter the stereotypically male ideals of productive processes, should be implemented to bring reproductive processes back from homes and into educational institutions and moral education classrooms. These programs help support the idea that both teaching and learning include the passing on and learning of values, and that teaching and learning can take on many forms. In addition, the state of innovative programs such as Lifeline, anomalous and in limbo, provide a key point regarding the idea that innovation can be influenced externally, in this case by historical views of processes and the ideal person having traditionally male characteristics (Martin, 1987).  

Furthermore, some of the ideas behind programs such as Lifeline are applicable to all classrooms, including English language classrooms. It is of the utmost importance to develop and foster safe and inclusive classrooms for students, with teachers showing that they really do care about how students feel and that they succeed, regardless of gender, culture and/or beliefs. Such environments would be conducive for students to learn to care about others and understand their needs and situations, as the Lifeline program intends (Martin, 1987).

Questions for the author:

Have programs such as Lifeline seen (for lack of a better term) success in other countries/cultures?

Would the redefining of education and transformation of moral education through programs such as Lifeline benefit from the inclusion of ideas from culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies?

Martin, J. R. (1987). Transforming moral education. Journal of Moral Education, 16(3), 204-213. https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.queensu.ca/doi/abs/10.1080/0305724870160305