Moral Vocationalism

Abstract After years of neglect attempts have recently been made to introduce the important ethical aspects of educational development into schools and colleges through programmes which emphasise the values of active citizenship and the importance of ?moral competence? in contemporary society. These programmes are described and labelled as examples of ?moral vocationalism? and criticised on the grounds that they have a weak knowledge base, are founded on behaviourist learning principles and are located within an exclusively instrumentalist framework. Such schemes, consequently, fail to meet the criteria for satisfactory moral education and need to be supplemented by the good practice developed in the 1960s and 1970s by, for example, Kohlberg, the Farmington Trust and the Schools Council