| Summary: | This thesis is about the concept of social responsibility in moral education. I deal
primarily with presenting a conceptualization of social responsibility as a moral tradition
but I neither claim to decisively resolve the tensions surrounding the conceptual status of
social responsibility nor articulate the precise definition of a moral tradition. Instead, I
will present one way" of conceptualizing social responsibility and moral traditions in
moral education that works for some very good reasons.
This conceptual examination is both topical and important in British Columbia as
The Ministry of Education has implemented an assessment program based upon
developing social responsibility in its students. I begin examining the Ministry document,
The British Columbia Performance Standards for Social Responsibility, (2000) in light of
its ability to provide a basic theoretical framework for moral education toward social
responsibility.
My purpose in relation to understanding social responsibility is to emphasise the
importance of three dimensions of social responsibility in moral education. They are:
• Understanding the essential role of reasoning about moral concerns and
participating in moral dialogue in learning to be socially responsible.
• Coming to realize that social responsibility is itself a moral tradition into which
students ought to be initiated.
• Realizing the importance of students developing critical appreciation of
themselves as moral agents and the virtues related to it.
We stand to benefit from a comprehensive definition of social responsibility which
recognizes students' potential as moral agents in these three areas. Again, this is not to
claim that I have resolved the intellectual tensions related to the conceptual status of
social responsibility. However, my intent is to open up the discussion in such a way that
encourages future researchers and policy makers to take seriously the importance of
adequately defining social responsibility. Furthermore, to connect the practice of teaching
students social responsibility with the conceptual task of describing it, I also include an
example of my ideas about social responsibility as they look in practice.
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