Etik i klassrummet

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to explore the ethical competence of middle school students in Sweden with the purpose of finding out what factors affect their ethical development. To do so, material from a pedagogical research project called EthiCo has been obtained, where students in year five have answered a survey containing examples of ethically challenging situations. The answers have been analyzed through a deductive text analysis where the theory of the four ethical abilities by Lilja & Osbeck (2019) have been used. The abilities in question are Understanding, Verbalizing, Acting and Persevering. Furthermore, the material has been analyzed with the help of different ethical concepts such as Tappans (2006) Mediated Actions and the Voice of Justice & Care. The conclusion was that there is a difference in development of ethical competence in the partaking students even though they are in the same grade. Role models, norms and social interaction was found out to be important factors in how the student’s ethical competence is developed.