Current Research on Moral Education and Development in Europe

The Moral and Social Action Interdisciplinary Colloquium (MOSAIC) is an international multidisciplinary network of scholars working within the fields of the philosophy, psychology and sociology of moral development, moral education and moral thought. MOSAIC runs an annual conference, traditionally in June or July. This conference attracts an international mix of doctoral students, early career researchers and more established academics. The theme of the 2005 conference, held at the Universitat Konstanz in Germany, was the moral and religious challenges facing education in Europe. The programme was diverse, with papers covering topics as varied as values education, religious orientation, morality across cultures, measuring morality, individual differences and moral domains. This research review aims to showcase some of the research presented at this MOSAIC conference. A selection of seven abstracts extended and edited to form summaries demonstrates the varied research in the fields of moral development, moral education and moral thought currently being undertaken by MOSAIC members. These provide a resource for those involved in, or who intend to embark on, related work. The selected summaries include: (1) "The Problems Faced by Disabled Students in Higher Education: An Ethical Perspective" (Mujde Koca); (2) "The Moral Judgement Competence of Adolescents in the Republic of Macedonia in the Case of Transgression towards State Symbols" (Marijana Handziska); (3) "Moral Reasoning among Nigerian and Northern Irish Children: The Impact of Political Conflict" (Neil Ferguson); (4) "Values and Knowledge Education (VaKE) -- Can They be Combined? Concepts, Philosophical Bases, Experiences and Evaluation" (Sieglinde Weyringer, Jean-Luc Patry); (5) "Cross-Cultural Validity of the Moral Judgment Test (MJT): Findings from 17 Validation Studies" (Georg Lind); (6) "The Effect of Context on Moral Judgements" (Zsuzsanna Vajda, Szabolcs Hajnal); and (7) "The Role of Self-Interest in Moral Ascriptions and Political Perceptions" (Aleksandra Cislak).