Promoting moral values in the social studies classroom

Generally people perceive moral education as vital for the overall development of children as well as essential for the welfare and development of the country they live in. Venkatiah (1998) says A nation with atomic power is not a strong nation, but a nation with strong character is indeed a strong nation. If a nation is to be strong, then the character of the people of the nation needs to be elevated. (p.12). Though there are various sources to equip children with good morals including parents, media, etc. however, the role of a teacher is considered essential by various educational thinkers and well- meaning people of society. In the context of Pakistan, people have divergent views about the teachers\u27 roles. A majority of these people seem to be satisfied with their performance with specific reference to promote children\u27s moral values. I thought I would ascertain the teachers\u27 perceptions and their instructional strategies focussing on the social studies\u27 classroom. The underlying purpose is that teachers, including myself, can devise more effective strategies keeping in view the existing practices in school. The study was carried out in a private school in Karachi and two teachers of secondary level were my respondents. The qualitative paradigm of research was used with the aim to subsume teachers\u27 theories and practices as well as students\u27 views and make meaning which could meet the purpose of my study. It was largely found in the process of the study that the teachers give a lot of importance to imparting moral values and try to impart them by taking help from religious sayings. They can use some strategies which are also considered effective in literature but they largely use those techniques they had learnt from their teachers and parents. Not being exposed to any professional program focusing moral values, dilemmas of syllabus completion seem to be seen to be the major hindrances in the field of teaching moral values