The Implications of Physical Education and Sport in the Moral Education of High School Students

Moral education is determined by the social phenomenon, which confers its content and represents a component of general education; it contributes to the formation and development of moral conscience and behaviour, to shaping the moral profile of the personality, and to the elaboration of social moral behaviour. In many European countries, there are educational policies that promote the social and moral development of young people. According to the provisions of the National Curriculum currently into effect in our country, all the areas in the curriculum have the obligation of contributing to the social and moral development of young people. In this sense, researchers in the field pinpoint that physical education and sport - mostly physical education and sport teachers - have an important role in reaching this objective. Nonetheless, there is only scanty conclusive evidence to support this theory. In addition, scientists consider the social and moral field differently. Currently, there is too little information on the way in which physical education and sport teachers become aware of their responsibility in the social and moral development of the students through the discipline they teach. There is also insufficient information of the way they understand and apply the objectives of moral education.