Abstract

The paper explores the moral ontology of democratic values education. It argues against the assumption that democratic values education, based on individual freedom, should be understood in a moral anti-realist and constructivist frame of reference. It claims, instead, that it is possible to educate in democratic values in ways that foster the development of the rational and moral autonomy of children only within the moral realist context. The Kohlbergian, Deweyan, Rawlsian, MacIntyrean and Rortyan counter-arguments are considered and some of their problems discussed.