MORAL AND CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

(MCED 1011)

Ayenew Birhanu(PhD)
 Chapter One: Understanding Civics and
Ethics
What does civic education mean?
 Since human being is a social animal and couldn’t
live alone, he/she has to respect cer tain
fundamental principles and values to live together
with his/her fellow beings and consequently build
peaceful society and lead prosperous life.
 As Johan Stuart Mill (1972) described it, progressive and
peaceful setting subsists in a given society as far as that
so c ie ty deve lo ps the q ualitie s o f its me mbe rs and
generates good citizens.
 Aristotle (1955) also added that citizens of a State should
always be educated to suit the constitution of a State.
 Accordingly, creating a good citizen has been the prior
concern of many States, including Ethiopia. This is because
good citizens are made not born.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 Over the years, different terms have been used

in an attempt to capture and describe the
educational experiences that deal with the task
of developing democratic minded citizens.
 The subject assumed different names and
purposes depending on countries’ ideologies
and thus the def in ition of the discipline vary
across States.
 Terms such as Right Education (in South Africa),
Citizenship Education (in United States of America
and Germany), Citizenship and Character Education
(in Singapore), Civics and Ethical Education (in
Ethiopia) are just a few examples that can be found
in the literature.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics
 Though the most cited def inition of civic education is an
education that studies about the rights and responsibilities
of citizens of a politically organized group of people,
different writers define it in many ways. For instance,
 Patrick (1986) def in es civic education as the knowledge of the
constitutions, the principles, values, history and application to
contemporary life.
 Citizenship education can be understood as the knowledge,
means, and activities designed to encourage students to
participate actively in democratic life, accepting and exercising
their rights and responsibilities.
 UNDP, 2004, def in es civic education as a way of learning for
effective participation in a democratic and development process.
 Aggarwal (1982) linked civic education to the development of
ideas, habits, behaviours and useful attitudes in the individual
which enables him to be a useful member of the society.
 Still the subject matter can be also def in ed as the process of
h elping you ng people acqu ire and learn to u se th e skills,
knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent
and responsible citizens throughout their lives.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics
The Definition and Nature of Ethics and Morality
A. What Ethics is?
 Et h i cs i s a bra nch of ph i l osoph y t h a t a t t empt s to
understand people’s moral beliefs and actions
 Ethics, or moral philosophy, considers theories about what
human beings are capable of doing, alongside accounts of
what they ought to do if they are to live an ethically good
life.
 Ethics also explores the meaning and the ranking of
different ethical values, such as honesty, autonomy,
equality and justice, and it considers ethical quandaries
that human beings face in the course of living their own
independent but, also, socially interdependent lives.
 Ethics may share common ground with the law, religious
belief, popular opinion, professional codes and the
dictates of authority f igures, but it is also broader than all
of these and offers a set of tools and values against which
their appropriateness can be evaluated.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 Occasionally the term ethics is used

interchangeably with morals
Although this is acceptable, a precise usage
would apply the term’s morals and moral to
the conduct itself, while the terms ethics and
ethical would refer to the study of moral
conduct or to the code that one follows.
Thus, the specif ic act of telling the caller you
were home could be described as moral or
immoral.
But what makes any act moral or immoral,
right or wrong fall within the province of ethics.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 When we speak of moral problems then, we

generally refer to specific problems, such as “Is
lying ever right?” or “Is stealing always wrong?”
in contrast, we can look at ethical problems as
being more general and theoretical
 Thus, “what makes any act, such as lying or
stealing, right or wrong?” and “what makes any
entity good?” are ethical problems.
 In short, morality refers to the degree to which
an action conforms to a standard or norm of
human conduct.
 Ethics refers to the philosophical study of
values and of what constitute good and bad
human conduct.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 Generally, Ethics is:

1. The critical examination and evaluation of
what is good, evil, right and wrong in human
conduct (Guy, 2001).
2. A specif ic set of principles, values and
g u i d e l i n e s f o r a p a r t i c u l a r g ro u p o r
organization (Guy, 2001).
3. The study of goodness, right action and
moral responsibility, it asks what choices
and ends we ought to pursue and what moral
principles should govern our pursuits and
choices (Madden, 2000).
 Understanding Civics and Ethics
B. What is Morality?
 Etymological def in ition – drived from Latin word
moralitas - “manner, character, proper behaviour”.
 Refers to the concept of human action which pertains
to matters of right and wrong, good and evil
 It can be used to mean the generally accepted code of
conduct in a society, or within a subgroup of society: a matter
of individual choice, those values to which we ought to aspire
and those values shared within a culture, religious, secular, or
philosophical community
 Morality has been a topic of discussion for a very long
time.
 According to Socrates “We are discussing no small matter, but
how we ought to live” when issues of morality are discussed.
 In f ac t, mo ral philo so phy is the atte mpt to ac hie v e a
systematic understanding of the nature of morality and what it
requires of us.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 In Socrates’ words it’s “how we ought to live”.

 Living in a multicultural Ethiopia, how we ought to live can
be very complicated because of the diversity of culture that
is vast and unique
 Morality is, at the very least, the effort to guide one’s
conduct by reason
 It is important that in a countries like Ethiopia, morality is
shared as a common goal to ensure harmony and integrity.
 Terms such as morality and ethics are often used
interchangeably in everyday speech as referring to
justified or proper conduct
 But ethics is usually associated with a certain conduct
within a profession, for example, the code of ethics for the
teaching profession.
 Morality is a more general term referring to the character of
individuals and community.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 In other words, Morality is used to refer to what we

would call moral conduct while ethics is used to
refer to the formal study of moral conduct.
 It can be claimed that morality is related to praxis,
but ethics is related to theory.
 Morality is:
1. Those principles and values that actually guide, for better
or worse, an individual’s personal conduct (Guy, 2001)
2. Morality is the informal system of rational beings by which
they govern their behavior in order to lesson harm or evil
and do good, this system, although informal, enjoys
amazing agreement across time and cultures concerning
moral rules, moral ideas and moral virtues (Madden, 2000)
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

Ethics Morality
Is philosophical study of the code, Refers to the code of conduct one
standards or norm of human conduct follows while ethics is the study of
and it is more theoretical and general moral conduct or the study of the code
one. that one follows
Ethics establish the standards, norms, Is the conformity of human behavior to
or codes to be followed by human the established code of conduct .If an
beings are the study of morality, moral action conform to the established code,
principles, and moral decision making. it is called moral ,if not immoral

Is the development of reasonable Refers to the effort to guide one’s

standards and procedures for ethical conduct by reason while giving equal
decision-making? w e ight to the inte re sts of e a ch
individual who will be affected by one’s
conduct
Is a set of normative rules of conduct, Has to do with what one should do, all
a code, a standards that govern what things considered, not what, in fact,
one ought to do when the well-being, any of us will so in a particular instance
or dutie s to one se lf, othe rs or
 Understanding Civics and Ethics
Ethics and Law
 As against morals and ethics, laws are norms, formally
approved by state, power or national or international
political bodies.
 Many laws are instituted in order to promote well-being,
resolve conflicts of interest, and promote social harmony.
 However, there are several reasons why ethics is not law.
1. Some actions that are illegal may not be unethical.
 Speeding is illegal, but one might have an ethical obligation to break the
speed limit in order to transport someone to a hospital in an emergency.
2. Some actions that are unethical may not be illegal.
 Most people would agree that lying is unethical but lying is only illegal
under certain conditions, e.g. lying on an income tax return, lying when
giving sworn testimony, etc.
3. Laws can be unethical or immoral. The United States had laws
permitting slavery in the 1800s but most people today would
say that those laws were unethical or immoral.
 Although we have moral and ethical obligations to obey the law, civil
disobedience can be justified when immoral or unethical laws exist.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics
 Since we can appeal to morality and ethics to justify or
criticize laws, many writers maintain that the main function
of a legal system is to enforce a society’s moral and ethical
consensus.
4. We use different kinds of mechanisms to express, teach,
inculcate, and enforce laws and ethics.
 Laws are expressed publicly in statutes, penal codes, court rulings,
government regulations, and so forth
 Although ethics and morals are sometimes made explicit in religious
texts, professional codes of conduct, or philosophical writings, many
ethical and moral standards are implicit
5. Finally, we use the coercive power of government to enforce
laws.
 People who break certain laws can be fined, imprisoned, or executed.
 People who violate ethical or moral standards do not face these kinds
of punishments unless their actions also violate laws
 Often we “punish” people who disobey moral or ethical obligations by
simply expressing our disapproval or by condemning the behaviour
 Understanding Civics and Ethics
The Importance/Goal of Moral and Civic Education

 Civic education is a discipline that deals with virtue
traits rooted in values of respect and culture of tolerance
to make individuals responsible and ef ficient member of
their community
 It teaches the values and sense of commitment that
def ine an active and principled citizen, how to make
responsible decisions, solve problems, care about others,
contribute to society, and be tolerant and respectful of
diversity
 In higher educational institutions of Ethiopia, civics and
e thic s/mo ral e d uc atio n is give n with the aim o f
educating students about democratic culture, ethical
values and principles, supremacy of constitution, the rule
of law, rights and duties of citizens
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 These elements are imperative in the process of

producing self-conf ident citizens who decides on
issues based on reason.
 It is also aimed at creating a generation who has
the capability to shoulder family and national
responsibility
 Ethics has also become important in education,
because education is a fundamental process of
human life.
 In education using technology reveals some ethical
problems such as plagiarism.
 In order to understand the importance of ethics,
ethics should be placed as a course in
educational system.
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 Generally, the necessity of delivering the

course emanates from:
1. The need to instil citizens about their rights
and duties
2. The Need for Participant Political Culture
3. The Need for Relevant Knowledge, Skills and
Positive Attitudes
4. The issue of fostering intercultural societies
5. The issue of peace-building
 Understanding Civics and Ethics

 Moral and Civics Education is based on

and seeks to promote in students core
moral, ethical, democratic, and educational
values, such as:
Respect for life
Respect for reasoning
Fairness
Concern for the welfare of others
Respect for diversity
Peaceful resolution of conflict


End of Chapter One