Primary School Students and Teachers’ Perceptions on the Role of Teachers as Moral Role Models

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue XII, December 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Primary School Students and Teachers’ Perceptions on the Role of Teachers as Moral Role Models

Timotheo Elinihaki
The Open University of Tanzania Faculty of Education P.O. Box 23409, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract: – Moral values and ethical values are mostly used interchangeably by most of the people. However, there is slight difference between the two terms. Moral values are the social, cultural and religious beliefs which tell us what is right or wrong (Encyclopedia Encarta, 2019). Moral contain rules and standards to be followed by a society or a culture as right. Certain rules or standards in one culture may be considered as right while in another may seen wrong. Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the principles of conduct; it works as a guiding principle as to decide what is good or bad (Begley, 2017). Ethical values are abstract and the same regardless of any culture, religion or society. Some of the ethical values are truthfulness, honesty, loyalty, respect, fairness and integrity (Binder, 2015).

I. LITERATURE REVIEW

Lickona (2011) defines moral values in education as the deliberate effort to develop good character of an individual person or a group based on core virtues that are considered as good for the society. Core virtues include social, cultural and religious values. Due to multi-cultural interactions, however, it is difficult to know whose values should be modeled to children in schools. Despite the fact that it is difficult to say whose moral values should be exemplified to the children; Ndibalema (2013) argues that, there are universal moral norms and values that have been passed down by previous generations, which form the basis for deciding on what values are to be emphasized.
In USA and Canada, Moral values in Education focuses on teaching social, cultural and religious values with critical thinking, for people could value something without critical mind about the thing (Kim, 2013). In Tanzania, the importance of moral values as important subject in schools and in teacher education was long advocated by Mbiti in 1970s (Betweli, 2013). Later many studies have been done in Tanzania (Anangisye, 2010; Lindner, 2014) proposed – the teachings of moral values education like religious values so as to eradicate extreme moral decay in the Tanzanian societies. Extreme Moral Decay in Tanzanian Societies include: the killings of people with albinism; the killings of old women with red eyes; physical and psychological violence; lack of accountability; Corruption, both within the public and in the private sectors.

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