Moral education in the zone of proximal development

In this paper the outlines of an explicitly "Vygotskian" perspective on moral education are sketched I begin by briefly reviewing and critiquing the two most well-known and widely used approaches to moral education-the cognitive-developmental approach and the character education approach-and I suggest that a Vygotskian/socio-cultural perspective has the potential to address many of the problems faced by contemporary moral educators. Vygotsky's ideas about the "zone of proximal development" are then summarised and those ideas are extended to the domain of moral education, focusing on an excerpt from the film, Boyz 'n the Hood. Narrative and story-telling are considered briefly as an example of how the zone of proximal development works to facilitate moral development in a way that is markedly different from that described by contemporary character educators, and I conclude with some brief reflections on questions left unanswered, and speculations about future directions for both theory and practice in moral education fi om a Vygotskian/socio-cultural perspective.