Abstract
In this chapter the author argues that in an age and society where children and adolescents have eroding support for building good lives, best practice for classroom teaching needs to be extended beyond mastery learning climates and caring communities. The author proposes building “sustaining climates”. A sustaining classroom climate is more than a good learning environment and it is more than a caring classroom. It also fosters students’ sense of purpose, as individuals and as groups around social engagement. It is characterized by collaborative leadership, community fellowship, democratic practice, and enhancement of human potential. It fosters awareness of human fallibilities, including the types of ethical orientations identified by Triune Ethics theory (security, engagement, imagination). Students learn to foster engagement and imagination ethics while minimizing the self-centered security ethic. In sustaining classrooms, students learn skills for flourishing and helping others to flourish.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
I adopt the term “moral habitat” from John Ozolins (2007), although I define it differently.
References
Anderman, L. (2003). Academic and social perceptions as predictors of change in middle school students’ sense of school belonging. The Journal of Experimental Education, 72, 5–22.
Anderson, L. M. (1989). Learners and learning. In M. C. Reynolds (Ed.), Knowledge base for the beginning teacher (1st ed., p. xii, 305 p.). Oxford: New York: Pergamon Press.
Anderson, C., Narvaez, D., Bock, T., Endicott, L., & Lies, J. (2004). Minnesota community voices and character education: Final report and evaluation. Roseville, MN: Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning.
Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54, 462–479.
Bargh, J. A., & Ferguson, M. J. (2000). Beyond behaviorism: On the automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 925–945.
Battistich, V. A. (2008). The child development project: Creating caring school communities. In L. P. Nucci & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Handbook of moral and character education (pp. 328–351). New York: Routledge.
Baxter Magolda, M. (2001). Making their own way: Narratives for transforming higher education to promote self-development. New York: Stylus.
Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., Scales, P. C., & Blyth, D. A. (1998). Beyond the “village” rhetoric: Creating healthy communities for children and adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 2, 138–159.
Berman, S. (1997). Children’s social consciousness and the development of social responsibility. New York: SUNY Press.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. New York: Basic Books.
Brazelton, T. B., & Greenspan, S. I. (2001). The irreducible needs of children: What every child must have to grow, learn, and flourish. New York: Da Capo.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Canada, G. (1996). Fist stick knife gun: A personal history of violence in America. New York: Beacon.
Cogan, J. J. (1997). Multicultural citizenship: Educational policy for the 21st century. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
Darwin, C. (1871/1981). The descent of man. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Deci, E., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Academic Press.
DeVries, R., & Zan, B. (1994). Moral classrooms, moral children: Creating a constructivist atmosphere in early education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256–273.
Ehman, L. H. (1980). The American school in the political socialization process. Review of Educational Research, 50, 99–119.
Eidelson, R. J., & Eidelson, J. I. (2003). Dangerous ideas: Five beliefs that propel groups toward conflict. American Psychologist, 58, 182–192
Elias, M. J., Parker, S. J., Kash, V. M., Weissberg, R. P., & O’Brien, M. U. (2008). Social and emotional learning, moral education and character education: A comparative analysis and a view towards convergence. In L. P. Nucci & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Handbook of moral and character education (pp. 248–266). New York: Routledge.
Elliot, A. (1997). Integrating the “classic” and “contemporary” approaches to achievement motivation: A hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. In M. Maehr & P. Pintrich (Eds.), Advances in motivation and achievement (Vol. 10, pp. 143–179). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Fiske, S. (2003). Social beings. New York: Wiley.
Fraser, B. J. (1989). Twenty years of classroom climate work: Progress and prospect. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 21, 307–327.
Frensch, P. A. (1998). One concept, multiple meanings: On how to define the concept of implicit learning (pp. 47–104). In M. A. Stadler & P. A. Frensch (Eds.), Handbook of implicit learning (pp. 47–104). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Fry, D. (2007). Beyond war: The human potential for peace. New York: Oxford University Press.
Garbarino, J. (1999). Raising children in a socially toxic environment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Greenspan, S., & Shanker, S. (2004). The first idea. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.
Hall, E. T. (1973). The hidden language. New York: Anchor.
Hartmann, H. (1939/1958). Ego psychology and the problem of adaptation (D. Rapaport, Trans.). New York: International Universities Press.
Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1984). Automatic processing of fundamental information. American Psychologist, 39, 1372–1388.
Haynes, N. M. (1998). Creating safe and caring school communities: Comer school development program schools. Journal of Negro Education, 65, 308–314.
Haynes, N. M., & Comer, J. P. (1993). The Yale school development program: Process, outcomes, and policy implications. Urban Education, 28, 166–199.
Hewlett, B., & Lamb, M. (2005). Hunter-gatherer childhoods: Evolutionary, developmental, & cultural perspectives. Aldine, TX: De Gruyter.
Hogarth, R. M. (2001). Educating intuition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jackson, P. (1968). Life in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Kuperminc, G. P., Leadbeater, B. J., & Blatt, S. J. (2001). School social climate and individual differences in vulnerability to psychopathology among middle school students. Journal of School Psychology, 39, 141–159.
Kuperminc, G. P., Leadbeater, B. J., Emmons, C., & Blatt, S. J. (1997). Perceived school climate and difficulties in the social adjustment of middle school students. Applied Developmental Science, 1, 76–88.
Lerner, R. M., Dowling, E. M., & Anderson, P. M. (2003). Positive youth development: Thriving as the basis of personhood and civil society. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 172–180.
Ma, X. (2003). Sense of belonging to school: Can schools make a difference? The Journal of Educational Research, 96, 340–349.
Masten, A. (2003). Commentary: Developmental psychopathology as a unifying context for mental health and education models, research, and practice in schools. School Psychology Review, 32, 169–174.
McEvoy, A., & Welker, R. (2000). Antisocial behavior, academic failure, and school climate: A critical review. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 8, 130–140.
Narvaez, D. (2006). Integrative ethical education. In M. Killen & J. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (pp. 703–733). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Narvaez, D. (2007). How cognitive and neurobiological sciences inform values education for creatures like us. In D. Aspin & J. Chapman (Eds.), Values education and lifelong learning: Philosophy, policy, programmes (pp. 127–159). New York: Springer.
Narvaez, D. (2008). Triune ethics: The neurobiological roots of our multiple moralities. New Ideas in Psychology, 26, 95–119.
Narvaez, D. (2009a). Nurturing character in the classroom, EthEx Series, Book 4: Ethical action. Notre Dame, IN: ACE Press.
Narvaez, D. (2009b). Triune ethics theory and moral personality. In D. Narvaez & D. K. Lapsley (Eds.), Moral personality, identity and character: An interdisciplinary future (pp. 136–158). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Narvaez, D., & Bock, T. (2009). Nurturing character in the classroom, EthEx Series, Book 2: Ethical judgment. Notre Dame, IN: ACE Press.
Narvaez, D., Bock, T., Endicott, L., & Lies, J. M. (2004). Minnesota’s community voices and character education project. Journal of Research in Character Education, 2, 89–112.
Narvaez, D., & Endicott, L. (2009). Nurturing character in the classroom, EthEx Series, Book 1: Ethical sensitivity. Notre Dame, IN: ACE Press.
Narvaez, D., & Lies, J. (2009). Nurturing character in the classroom, EthEx Series, Book 3: Ethical motivation. Notre Dame, IN: ACE Press.
Ozolins, J. (2007). Avoiding bad company: The importance of moral habitat and moral habits in moral education. In D. A. Aspin & J. D. Chapman (Eds.), Values education and lifelong learning: Principles, policies, programmes (pp. 107–126). New York: Springer.
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Power, F. C., & Higgins–D’Alessandro, A. (2008). The just community approach to moral education and the moral atmosphere of the school. In L. P. Nucci & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Handbook of moral and character education (pp. 230–247). New York: Routledge.
Power, F. C., Higgins, A., & Kohlberg, L. (1989). Lawrence Kohlberg's approach to moral education. New York: Columbia University Press.
Prescott, J. W. (1996). The origins of human love and violence. Pre- and Perinatal Psychology Journal, 10, 143–188.
Reber, A. S. (1993). Implicit learning and tacit knowledge: An essay on the cognitive unconscious. New York: Oxford University Press.
Reimer, J., Paolitto, D. P., & Hersh, R. H. (1991). Promoting moral growth: From Piaget to Kohlberg (2nd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Rogers, C. R. (1983). Freedom to learn for the 80's. Columbus, OH: Merrill.
Scharmer, C. O. (2007). Theory U: Leading from the future as it emerges, the social technology of presencing. Cambridge, MA: Society for Organizational Learning.
Solomon, D., Watson, M. S., & Battistich, V. A. (2002). Teaching and school effects on moral/prosocial development. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook for research on teaching. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Staub, E. (2003). The psychology of good and evil: Why children, adults, and groups help and harm others. New York: Cambridge University of Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Why schools should teach for wisdom: The balance theory of wisdom in educational settings. Educational Psychologist. 36, 227–245.
Turkanis, C. G. (2001). Creating curriculum with children. In B. Rogoff, C. G. Turkanis, & L. Bartlett (Eds.), Learning together: Children and adults in a school community (pp. 91–102). New York: Oxford University Press.
Urdan, T., & Midgley, C. (2001). Academic self-handicapping: What we know, what more there is to learn. Educational Psychology Review, 13, 115–138.
Urdan, T., Midgley, C., & Anderman, E. M. (1998). The role of classroom goal structure in students’ use of self-handicapping. American Educational Research Journal, 35, 101–122.
Urmson, J. O. (1988). Aristotle’s ethics. Oxford, OX, UK; New York, NY, USA: Basil Blackwell.
Wang, M. C., Haertel, G. D., & Walberg, H. J. (1998). Building educational resilience. Phi Beta Kappa Fastbacks, 430, 7–61.
Watson, M. (2008). Developmental discipline and moral education. In L. P. Nucci & D. Narvaez (Eds.), Handbook of moral and character education (pp. 175–203). New York: Routledge.
Watson, M., Solomon, D., Battistich, V., Schaps, E., & Solomon, J. (1989). The child development project: Combining traditional and developmental approaches to values education. In L. P. Nucci (Ed.), Moral development and character education: A dialogue. Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.
Wentzel, K. R. (1997). Student motivation in middle school: The role of perceived pedagogical caring. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 411–419.
Wilson, T. D. (2003). Strangers to ourselves: Discovering the adaptive unconscious. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil. New York: Random House.
Zimmerman, B. J., Bonner, S., & Kovach, R. (2002). Developing self-regulated learners: Beyond achievement to self-efficacy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Zins, J. E., Bloodworth, M. R., Weissberg, R. P., & Walberg, H. J. (2004). The scientific base linking social and emotional learning to school success. In J. E. Zins, R. P. Weissberg, M. C. Wang & H. J. Walberg (Eds.), Building academic success: Social and emotional learning (pp. 3–22). New York: Teachers College Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Narvaez, D. (2010). Building a Sustaining Classroom Climate for Purposeful Ethical Citizenship. In: Lovat, T., Toomey, R., Clement, N. (eds) International Research Handbook on Values Education and Student Wellbeing. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8675-4_38
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8675-4_38
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8674-7
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-8675-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)