Philosophical Perspectives on Moral and Civic Education

Many people place great stock in the importance of civic virtue to the success of democratic communities. Is this hope well-grounded? The fundamental question is whether it is even possible to cultivate ethical and civic virtues in the first place. Taking for granted that it is possible, at least three further questions arise: What are the key elements of civic virtue? How should we cultivate these virtuous dispositions? And finally, how should schools be organized in order to make the education of citizen possible? These interrelated questions are the focus of this collection. By considering these questions from a variety of philosophical perspectives ranging from moral psychology, philosophy of education, and political philosophy, the nine essays assembled here advance our understanding of the challenges we face in trying to shape children to be virtuous citizens.

Colin Macleod is Full Professor of Philosophy and Law at the University of Victoria. His research focuses on issues in contemporary moral, political and legal theory with a special focus on the following topics: (1) distributive justice and equality (2) children, families and justice and (3) democratic theory. He is the author and editor of various books including: Have A Little Faith: Religion, Democracy and the American Public School - co-author Ben Justice (2016); Liberalism, Justice, and Markets: A Critique of Liberal Equality (1998) and co-editor with David Archard of The Moral and Political Status of Children (2002). Christine Tappolet is Full Professor in the Département de philosophie at the Université de Montréal. Her research interests lie mainly in ethics, moral psychology, and emotion theory. She has edited a number of volumes, including, with Sarah Stroud, Weakness of Will and Practical Rationality (2003) and, with Fabrice Teroni and Anita Konzelmann-Ziv, Shadows of the Soul: Philosophical Perspectives on Negative Emotions (Routledge, 2018). She is the author of two books, Émotions et valeurs (2000) and Emotions, Values, and Agency (2016).

Introduction: Shaping Citizen and Their Schools Colin Macleod and Christine Tappolet 1. The Citizen and the Situation: Situationism, Schooling and the Cultivation of Civic Virtues Gideon Dishon 2. Should Teachers Encourage Curiosity? Michael S. Brady 3. Civic Education in the Post-Truth Era: Intellectual Virtues and the Epistemic Threats of Social Media Étienne Brown 4. Creating Civil Citizens? The Value and Limits of Teaching Civility in Schools Andrée-Anne Cormier and Harry Brighouse 5. Polarization, Partisanship, and Civic Education Meira Levinson and Ellis Reid 6. School Councils as Seedbeds of Civil Virtue? Liberal Citizenship Theory in Dialogue with Educational Research Bruce Maxwell and Nicolas Tanchuk 7. Non-Domination and Political Liberal Citizenship Education Blain Neufeld 8. Freedom as Non-Domination and Civic Education: Legalistic or Virtue Centered? Victoria Costa 9. Equality and Adequacy as Distributive Ideals for Education Rob Reich and Debra Satz