ABSTRACT
Moral and character educators working from different philosophical perspectives have generally acknowledged a major role in students’ moral development of the “hidden curriculum” manifested in the interpersonal environment of schools and classrooms (Giroux & Purpel, 1983; Jackson, Boonstrom, & Hansen, 1993; Ryan, 1986; Fallona & Richardson, 2006). Dewey (1909/1975), for example, argued that the mode of social life and the nature of the school community were far more important factors in students’ moral growth than direct moral instruction. Ryan (1986), from a quite different theoretical perspective, argues that “very little of the moral education that inevitably occurs in the schools is formally recorded in lesson plans, curriculum guides, or behavioral objectives” Rather, students develop their “conceptions of what being a good person entails” from such aspects of schooling as the rules that are or are not enforced, the rituals and procedures of daily classroom life, the expectations for and consequences of their behavior, and their teachers’ warnings, advice, and manner (p. 228).
