SIG 13 - Moral and Democratic Education

Coordinators

Eveline Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger

Senior Researcher, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany and University of Fribourg, Switzerland

eveline.gutzwiller-helfenfinger@uni-due.de

Inger Marie Dalehefte

Associate Professor and Head of Department, University of Agder, Norway

inger.m.dalehefte@uia.no

Lene Cherize H. Sirevåg

PhD Research Fellow, University of Agder, Norway

ene.c.sirevag@uia.no

Johanna Fee Ziemes

Academic Fellow, University of Duisburg-Essen

johanna.ziemes@uni-due.de

Mission statement

SIG 13 addresses questions of moral and democratic education from a scientific perspective with a particular focus on theoretically founded empirical research. Moral education means education to improve the learner's moral competence and actions, and democratic education deals with the furthering of democratic knowledge, attitudes, and actions in all their facets.
Moral and democratic competences are key issues in today's society. Competencies of this kind are topics in the school curricula of most countries; however, moral and democratic education mostly play a minor role in teaching, and where it is seen as important, it is usually not based on research outcomes but on traditions which oftentimes are quite questionable from a scientific point of view. The aim of SIG 13 is to promote warranted moral and democratic education, i.e., moral and democratic education that capitalizes on research in learning, development, and education, both in school and outside.