1THE TEACHER AS A MORAL EDUCATOR IN SECONDARY EDUCATION THE STUDENT PERSPECTIVE

Many teachers balance between transferring values to their students or merely clarifying values in front of their students. The first position, transfer of values, does not offer students the desired room for developing their personal interpretations to values. In the second position, clarification of values, the teacher is seen as just a supervisor of the process of the development of values by the students. Many scholars, and teachers too, are looking for a pedagogical and didactic approach in which they seek to do justice to the students ’ own development as well as to “propagating ” or stimulating the values that are important to themselves. Teachers are also a role model for their students because, during their pedagogical and didactic proceedings, they “live” certain values and skills. Of course, this does not mean that students will acquire these same values. But it is a reality that is held out to the students, that they cannot ignore, or that – to very least – they will have to relate. In earlier publications, we have shown how teachers interpret the forming of values in education (Veugelers & De Kat, 1999a; 1999b; Veugelers, 2000a; 2000b). But how do students judge the moral task of the teacher? What do they expect of the teacher? In this paper, we present the findings from three studies. Here we present the findings with regard to students from secondary schools and in some cases we will bring them into contrast with similar data from teachers and parents. First, we will address the question whether students believe that teachers in secondary education should not only transfer knowledge but that they also have a task in their moral development (section 1). Next, we will address three aspects of the pedagogical and didactic strategies of teachers: • the teachers ’ pedagogical and didactic strategies with value laden subject material (section 2); • the teachers ’ pedagogical and didactic strategies with critical situations (incidents) (section 3)