Conversations with Moral Educators
Background and Aims
The Journal of Moral Education (JME) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021, the Association for Moral Education (AME) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024 and the Asia-Pacific Network for Moral Education (APNME) moves towards its 20th anniversary in 2026. Through these organisations, moral education may be recognised as a modern, broad, interdisciplinary academic field, drawing principally upon philosophy, psychology and education. Moral education as researched across the world in theory and practice over the last 50 years has been represented and critiqued through publication in JME and through conference presentations at AME, APNME and elsewhere. Relatively little has been written about or said by those academics who, over recent decades, have contributed to the foundation and emergence of moral education through philosophical and psychological reflection, empirical research, teaching and learning. In many cases, they have also been centrally involved in the founding, leadership, administration and organisation of one or more of the JME, AME or APNME, and other moral education societies in their own countries.
At this time – of retrospection and future planning in these organisations, ongoing changes in socio-moral-political contexts worldwide, and the emergence of technologies giving rise to new questions in moral philosophy, areas of study in moral psychology and implications for teaching and learning in moral education – it seems appropriate to capture the memories and reflections of moral educators on their contributions to the building of a field of academic study and communities of sharing and critique over many years of involvement.
This online project, undertaken on behalf of the Journal of Moral Education Trust (JMET), in collaboration with members of AME and APNME, comprises a series of reflective and analytic one-to-one conversations between Dr Monica Taylor and key moral educators from various countries worldwide. These conversations aim to give public recognition to certain contributions to the field through the evaluative perspectives of senior academics on their work and activities in historical contexts. These conversations are being recorded digitally for open access through the JMET’s website.
Methods
Prospective participants are being contacted by email, informed of the existence and nature of the project and invited to participate. On agreement, they are asked to sign a consent form and a date and time for the conversation to take place is fixed.
Participants are asked to supply by email: a copy of their full CV; a brief biography; a digital career photo; a selected list of up to six accessible works (books, articles, pamphlets, presentations, etc) which they regard as most personally satisfying, academically well received or influential on research or practice. General topics to be covered are suggested whilst aiming to be responsive to the individual lifetime contribution of each participant. Participants’ attention is drawn to an ethical code of practice (https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024-online) to which the interviewer will seek to adhere.
The conversations take place online by Zoom and an audio-recording is kept. Recordings will not be edited by either party, unless specifically requested. The audio-recording, brief biography, photo and summary of conversation themes are uploaded on the JMET’s website, moraleducation.info.
The conversations cover a broad range of common topics tailored to fit with each participant’s engagement with moral education as part of their career history and their involvement in related professional organisations (e.g., JME, AME, APNME, local, national and regional societies). Conversations aim to acknowledge institutional belonging and relevance, country and socio-moral-political context(s) as grounds for academic opportunities and research collaborations, publication and presentation history. Conversations encourage participants to reflect on highlights, successes, frustrations and failures in their involvement in moral education and their reasons for choosing their selected works. Participants are also be asked to speak about their involvements in JME, AME, APNME and other moral education related activities in their local contexts and to offer reflections, memories and comments.
Dr Monica J. Taylor
May, 2025
Conversations with Moral Educators
For Conversations with Moral Educators, click on the names below: