Updating the proposal of “Just Communities” for democratic civil education

Abstract

This article examines Kohlberg’s proposal of the “just community” from a current perspective in line with a post-conventional morality grounded on the democratization of schools. A type of teacher training is proposed that uses up-to-date methods to approach just communities. By taking the critical interpretation of the model of moral development, the article also concludes that schools today have integrated some of the cutting-edge advances to the just communities’ program, and that this approach reciprocally calls for updating the idea of moral education by incorporating a broader view of morality. Such an update also includes families in the joint process of stimulating moral development and resolving conflicts of action. Lastly, it has been explained that Kohlberg did not give the family a role in their children’s moral education, stating that the specific way to develop moral reasoning is through the relationships among equals at school. It is unclear whether there is a particular moral family environment that best fosters the development of the child’s moral reasoning. Nevertheless, data provided from some studies confirm that there is a relationship between the moral reasoning of the parents and that of their children. Indeed, parents may even use teaching strategies to improve their children’s moral development through dialog and the use of inductive strategies.