The Moral Development of School Children : A Quantitative Inquiry Study in Light of Carol Gilligan´s Theory of Moral Development

This study aims to investigate how students in the ninth grade and the final year of the Swedish upper secondary school discuss and argue about ethical dilemmas. The purpose is to implement the study in light of Carol Gilligan’s theory of moral development. The study consists of four different questions to answer throughtout the essay. The first three focuses on the differences between gender and grades. The last one focuses how the students would reason regarding the ethical dilemmas and how they motivate their response. To investigate this the students were presented with a questionnaire where they had to answer two ethical dilemmas and explain the reasoning behind it. In the questionnaire they had to answer both closed alternative questions aswell as open writing questions. The theory says that women reason with more care than men regaring ethical dilemmas and this essay intends to investigate this. The results showed no major difference between the genders, grades or the genders in respective grades, However there was a small difference between the genders in each dilemma, and the students in upper secondary school preseted a higher showing of care than the students in the ninth grade on the closed alterantives questions. The students showed ability to reflect in the dilemmas, although not many were able to reach the highest level of reasoning according to the theory of moral development by Carol Gilligan. One reason behind the results is the explanation that gender isn’t the factor contributing to your ability to reason and reflect with empathy and care. For the future it is important to include ethics into teaching about religion but also other subjects so that the students develop their own ethical compass and sense of moral