Moral education/education in values is a topic discussed in the scope of Philosophy and of Education Sciences, namely in studies on curriculum and didactics, varying its orientation according to the adopted foundations, both of ethical order and referring to psychological research on moral development.

In the Portuguese case, a general orientation has been defined through the National Strategy for Education for Citizenship in 2017, and a set of mandatory and transversal themes has been established that clearly fall within the sphere of values, but without explicit reference to moral education or development. The proposed framework is the Whole-school Approach, although there are different curricular situations depending on the level of schooling, namely the curricular subject “Citizenship and Development".

Given this reality, the research question is: "What components of morality do children (10-12) develop through the subject of Citizenship and Development?"

The research is based on Rest's integrative model of moral development. While named neo-kohlberguian (Rest et al, 2000), Rest model of moral development is rather different from Kohlberg approach. Faced with the question "What processes or functions must have occurred in order for an individual to perform a moral act?" (Rest, 1986, p. 3), Rest identified four components (Rest, 1979; 1986), each of which corresponds to a different psychological process, being moral behavior the result of these different processes and not just the logical or affective consequence of a single process, as follows: moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation and moral action, each of which can be studied separately. By moral sensitivity, is meant that the person is aware of the moral dimension of the situation and so s/he’s able to interpret the situation in terms of how his/her actions will affect the welfare of others. Moral judgment is the ability to formulate possible moral courses of action and to formulate a plan of action that applies a moral standard or ideal in that specific situation. Moral motivation is the capacity to decide for one course of action by evaluating if it serves moral values. Moral action is the ability to accomplish what one has decided to do, by identifying and validly overcoming obstacles and difficulties. (Rest, 1984; 1986) Several studies have been made on moral judgement of college students and professional groups by Rest and his research group, namely using the DIT (Defining Issues Test) (Rest, 1979; 1987). Based on this integrative model, between 1998 and 2002, the Department of Education of the University of Minnesota (Narvaez et al., 2004) developed the community voices and character education project (CVCE), a moral education project addressed to children from 10 to 12 years old, in collaboration with middle school teachers. The project addresses some important questions that are present in the Portuguese context. In fact, as said above, “citizenship education aims to contribute to the education of responsible, autonomous, supportive people, who know and exercise their rights and duties in dialogue and respect for others, with a democratic, pluralistic, critical and creative spirit, with reference to the values of human rights” (Working Group on Citizenship Education, 2017; p. 3). In view of the above, this communication intends to present the results of a project in the Portuguese context, which aimed to adapt and apply the community voices and character education project (CVCE).

This is an exploratory investigation to meet the objectives outlined. The sample consisted of approximately 12 classes, with 300 students, of the 2nd cycle of middle school, collected in schools in the North region of Portugal, through self-report scales distributed to students on paper. It used a sociodemographic questionnaire to collect data that allows us to characterize the sample. Also, scales developed by Narvaez et al. (2004), that have been translated, adapted and validated for the educational Portuguese context: Concern for Others (Ethical Sensitivity); Citizenship Scale (Ethical Focus/Motivation); Community Bonding Scale (Ethical Focus/Motivation); Ethical Identity Scale (Ethical Focus/Motivation); Ethical Assertiveness (Ethical Action) and the Basic Empathy Scale – BES, developed by Jolliffe and Farrington (2006). Taking into count the adaptation, the model was translated and verified the language according to three specialists: one in moral development, on in methodology and one in English. The protocol was initially previously applied to a group of 5students for language measurement. The study received a favourable decision from the Ethics Committee of the University of Porto. After authorization from the schools, the informed consent of the parents or legal guardians of the students involved was also requested. The students were free to participate or leave the study in any moment. In the data collection, a project researcher was always present to clarify possible doubts to the students and present the objectives of the project. It will be carried psychometric and correlational analyses.

It is expected that the scales, translated and adapted to the Portuguese context, have good psychometric properties. It is also expected to identify the levels of Ethical Sensitivity, Citizenship, Community Bonding, Ethical Identity, Ethical Assertiveness (Narvaez et al., 2004) and Basic Empathy Scale (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006; Portuguese version of Pechorro et al., 2018). It is expected that there is a positive correlation between all scales and that high scores on the different ethical scales correspond to high levels of empathy. Finally, there are expected no sex differences. Taking into account the results from the Narvaez et al. (2004) study it is expected that, that students with high commitment in schools will have a higher gain in feelings toward and perceptions of teachers and school, and also an increased sensitivity to perceiving peers intolerance and an increase in concern for others.

Working Group on Citizenship Education (2017). National strategy for citizenship education. https://cidadania.dge.mec.pt/sites/default/files/pdfs/national-strategy-citizenship-education.pdf Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. (2006). Development and validation of the Basic Empathy Scale. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 589-611. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.08.010 Kohlberg, L. (1976). Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive developmental approach. In Lickona, T. (ed.), Moral Development and Behavior (pp. 31-53). Holt, Rienhart, and Winston. Narvaez, D., Bock, T., Endicott, L., & Lies, J. (2004). Minnesota’s community voices and character education project. Journal of Research and Education, 2(2), 89-112. Pechorro, P., Jesus, S. N., Kahn, R., Gonçalves, R. A., & Barroso, R. (2018). A versão breve da Escala de Empatia Básica numa amostra escolar de jovens Portugueses: Validade, fiabilidade e invariância. Revista Iberoamericana de Diagnóstico y Evaluación – e Avaliação Psicológica, 49(4), 157-169. https://doi.org/10.21865/RIDEP49.4.13 Rest, J. (1979). Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis. MN: University of Minnesota. Rest. J. (1984). The major components of morality. In W. Kurtines, and J. Gewirtz (eds.), Morality, Moral Development and Moral Behavior (pp. 24–38). New York: Wiley Rest, J. (1986). Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory. NY: Praeger Press. Rest, J. et al (2000). A Neo-Kohlbergian Approach to Morality Research. Journal of Moral Education, 29 (4), 381-395. Rest, J., Narvaez, D., Thoma, S. J., Bebeau, M. J. (1999b). DIT2: Devising and testing a new instrument of moral judgment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(4), 644-659.