ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the effect of the changing social, cultural and educational context on how spiritual and moral development are understood and can be encouraged in schools. The lack of an agreed definition of spirituality and the loosening of the link with organised religion are highlighted. It is argued that virtue ethics, with its emphasis on developing the ‘whole child’ and the qualities and dispositions associated with this mostly by example, practice and habit, provides a better basis for moral education than duty ethics. Spiritual and moral development is the responsibility of all educators, across and beyond the formal curriculum, by creating environments and pedagogies which enable young people to engage in their own search for meaning and identity and explore and understand their own and other people’s values. Religious Education has a valuable, distinctive role in providing opportunities for all children to discuss and think critically about a range of important, often controversial, issues, both religious and otherwise, without demanding allegiance to a particular set of beliefs.
