Educating for Care and Virtue Development in Young Children : Research Approaches in Ethics Education from the MelArete Project

This book champions care education in early childhood school contexts, addressing the critical need for an effective and meaningful moral education grounded in Platonic and Aristotelian reflections on virtues, and ultimately positing a theory of ethical education that connects ancient philosophy to contemporary care thinking.

Arguing that a care approach to moral education has benefits for interpersonal interaction and significant implications for our collective well-being, this book offers a compelling theory of moral education rooted in care ethics and a virtue genealogy that traces back to ancient philosophy. This argument is supported by the empirical findings of the MelArete Project, a 10-year research project in care and virtues education that guides children’s attention to the concepts of care and virtues. Unique amongst contemporary virtue and character approaches that have typically adopted a more analytic and Anglophone research base, Mortari and her colleagues have developed a rich research base that combines ancient philosophy, continental philosophy, and character education.

Ultimately arguing for a moral education centered on care in the wake of our current ethical crisis, the book contributes to a growing body of literature on prominent virtue and character education programmes around the world, and will therefore appeal to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students working in moral and values education, ethics education, and educational theory more broadly. Care ethicists and early childhood educators will also benefit from this volume.