Moral education and Kohlberg's stages of moral development in the light of social problems

Whilst acknowledging the great importance of Lawrence Kohlberg's work in the fields of moral development and moral education, this study draws attention to a range of short comings which have to do with a phenomenological poverty that is so serious as to question the empirical foundation of the underlying theory. The appropriateness of the positivist method at the heart of the latest Scoring Manual is shown to be less than total and the quest for a "scientific" understanding of morality to be ill-conceived. On the basis of fieldwork, suggestions are made as to how E Yohlberg's measure of moral maturity might be modified and incorporated into a pedagogy that is much more sensitive to the lives people lead in the late 20th century.