Abstract

Info

Title:: The Social Construction of Moral Power and Its Implications for Moral Education in Schools

Abstract:: Morality is social by nature. Moral power refers to the forces by which people voluntarily accomplish a conduct to achieve some moral effects on others. It can constrain individuals’ behaviors and normalize social life. By nature, moral power derives from the society on which we live, and relies on the rational authority of moral norms and the rational pursuit of moral education. It is embedded in the social structure, and reflects the moral criteria by which we judge the degree of children’s socialization and the society’s acceptance of children. Moral education in schools should return to the Chinese tradition of body practice, make use of embodied metaphor teaching, and encourage children to carry out the moral power by actual efforts, through which we can assist children to establish specific moral ideas and develop desirable moral intellect.