MORAL AND Civic EDUCATION

(MCED) for all 1st year BuMa & AcFn

students.

Prepared By: Bibah

Osisked
 Main Topic of the course
• Understanding Civics and Ethics
Nature of Ethics and Morality
• Approaches to Ethics
 three basic kinds of prescriptive /moral theories:
o teleological theories,
o deontological theories, &
o virtue-based theories
• Ethical Decision Making and Moral Judgments
 Ethical Principles and Values of Moral Judgments
 Moral intuitions and Critical Reasoning
• State, Government and Citizenship
 Chapter One
Understanding Civics and Ethics
Introduction
Objectives
Defining Civics, Ethics, Morality
Civic Education
The Definition and Nature of Ethics and Morality
Ethics and Law
The Importance/Goal of Moral and Civic
Education
Summary
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 CHAPTER ONE
UNDERSTANDING CIVICS AND ETHICS
• Here some terms are conceptualized; like:
 civic education,
 citizen,
 citizenship, will be defined.
 ethics and
 morality
Moreover, the relations between civics and ethics, goals of civics and ethics and
competences of a good citizen are the subject matters of this chapter.
Objectives
After the completion of this chapter, students will be able to:
 Define civic education, ethics and morality.
 Differentiate civic education from ethics.
 Discuss the goals of civics and ethics.
 numerate and explain the competences of a good citizen and evaluate yourself
in line with these competences.
 Use critical thinking, interpersonal skills and ethical theories to make
judgments on moral issues and dilemmas.
In view of the fact that human being is a social animal and
couldn‘t live alone, he/she has to respect certain fundamental
principles and values to live together with his/her fellow beings
and consequently build peaceful society and lead prosperous life
 Definition of civic education
The most cited definition 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. Eg:
Patrick (1986) defines civic education as the
knowledge of the constitutions, the principles,
values, history and application to
contemporary life.
United Nations Development Program (UNDP,
2004) defines civic education as a way of
learning for effective participation in a democratic
and development process.
• The word civics comes from the Latin word Civitas, which means citizen.
= a branch of social Science which deals with the rights and duties of Citizens.
Citizens are legal members of a politically organized community- called state .
 The term citizen refers to a person who has the right to be a full member of a
particular state, while the actual legal status of membership to a state is called
citizenship.
 Civics deals with the various aspects of social life of a citizen.
 The great political thinker, Aristotle defined “man as a social animal”.
Man as a social being interacts with other members of the society. But in his interaction with
the society, there may be cooperation and/or conflict.
 What matters most is not why conflict arise among human beings rather the question
should be how to solve differences and live in peace and harmony with each other.
 Civics deal with the understanding & the r/n/sh between man & his society.
• It is the intensive study and understanding of political institutions such as:
 lawmaking institutions,
 executive bodies,
 political parties,
 Judiciary etc
 Historical Development of Civic Education
 The Greece city state of Athens is said to be the first to organize CEE.
 Civic education has similar development to that of democracy.
 Accordingly, ancient Athenian time considered to be a political
engagement.
 In ancient Greek, to be a citizen means to be politician.
 It involves direct and active participation in the public affairs
that enabled to develop modern civic education (Junedi, 2006).
According to Alamrew (2005) cited in Junedi (2006) those social revolutions, which
took place in, western countries like:
 Britain (1688), America (1776) &
French revolution of (1789) contributed a lot for the growth of modern civic education ,
revolutions subsequently emerged with modern democratic
concepts &, therefore, paved the way for advanced civic education in Europe & the
work .
 Cont…

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The Definition &Nature of Ethics & Morality
• Ethics is a branch of philosophy that attempts to understand
people‘s moral beliefs and actions (this modules use the terms:
 ethics and morality‘;
 ethical ‘and moral‘ interchangeably,
Although traditionally ethics ‘described the process of thinking about
people‘s morality).
Ethics is a branch of philosophy.
• 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.
• Ethics may share common ground with the law,
religious belief, popular opinion, professional codes
and the dictates of authority figures.
 Notice the word should. Ethical questions are not
concerned with what one would do (an essentially
psychological concern) but what one ought to do.
 Occasionally the term ethics is used interchangeably with
morals. Business or medical ethics, for example, is
generally synonymous 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.
 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.
The concept of ethics has come from two Greek Words: ethos,
meaning character & ethikos which means moral.
Ethics briefly means moral character.

•Elaborately, ethics is defined as:

•The value or rule of conduct held by a group or individuals;
•A branch of philosophy which deals with human actions from the moral point
of view, as right or wrong, good or bad.
•Ethics can generally be viewed as, “the area of philosophy that is
concerned with study and analysis of what is good and what is bad,
what is right and what is wrong.”
Rather than simply accepting the customs or guidelines used by
one particular group or culture, philosophical ethic analyzes and
evaluates these guidelines in light of accepted universal principles
and concerns.
•More importantly, ethics is a way of life.
 Cont. …
• Ethics refers to the philosophical study of values
and of what constitute good and bad human
conduct.
• In dealing with human conduct from the perspective of
obligation and value, ethics investigates a variety of related
concerns.
• When ethicists use word like good or right to describe a
person or action they generally means that the person or
action conforms to some standard.
A good person or action has certain desirable qualities.
 Ethicists often disagree about the nature of those standards
and desirable qualities and follow different paths in
establishing standards and discovering which qualities are
desirable.
 Morality
What is Morality?
Of course, morality is a complex concept.
Though it is one of most frequently used terms, it can
mean different things to different people. Morality is a
commonly used word in most cultures.
 Some Scholars argued that if we do not know what
morality is we cannot teach it. In crucial ways we do not
know what morality is.
Yet we must teach it because it is of prime importance
and must be learned.
Moreover, teaching must not be brainwashing; it must
be moral. So, in order to understand Moral and Civics
Education, the term moral needs to be understood
 Morality can be viewed from different perspectives and
let us start with the simple definition of the word itself.
 Morality from a dictionary definition (from Latin
moralities manner, character, proper behavior) refers to
the concept of human action which pertains to matters
of right and wrong also referred to as good and evil.
 It relates to values expressed as: 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.
 This definition is clear when morality is spelt out and
agreed upon by others. However, it becomes ambiguous
when defined by different ethnic groups, especially in
the multicultural society, like Ethiopians.
Morality is:
Those principles and values that actually
guide, for better or worse, an individual‘s
personal conduct (Guy, 2001)
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)
 Ethics and Morality
Ethics Morality
- philosophical study of the code, - the code of conduct one follows
standards or norm of human conduct - while ethics is the study of moral
more theoretical and general one. conduct or the code that one follows
- establish the standards, norms, or I - the conformity of human behavior to
codes to be followed by human beings the established code of conduct .If an
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 - the effort to guide one‘s conduct by
standards and procedures for ethical reason while giving equal weight to
decision-making? the interests of each individual who
will be affected by one‘s conduct
a set of normative rules of conduct, a Has to do with what one should do, all
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
or duties to oneself, others or instance
institutions is at stake.

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Ethics and Law

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Ethics and Law

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The Importance/Goal of Moral and Civic Education

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• Generally, the necessity of delivering the course
emanates from:
1 The need to instill citizens about their rights
&duties:
2.The Need for Participant Political Culture:
3. The Need for Relevant Knowledge, Skills and
Positive Attitudes:
4. The issue of fostering inter-cultural societies:
5.The issue of peace-building
Rationale for Moral &Civics Education
 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
In sum the goals of teaching civics and ethics at any level
of educational institutions is to produce competent, high
moral standard society and responsible citizens who can ask and use
their rights and fulfill their obligations in accordance with the
laws of their respective country.