What children learn through their ethics and values education in school is of crucial societal relevance and is directed by school curricula. As curricula vary between countries, an international comparison is of interest. The aim of this study was to compare curricula to reveal variations in how matters of social justice were described in curricular texts, with a special focus on class, gender and race. Curricula from five different contexts were compared: Namibia; South Africa; California State, United states of America; Province of Québec, Canada; and Sweden. This provided the study, originating in Sweden, with crucial comparative material from outside Europe. The studied curricula were systematically searched for the importance and significance of the terms ‘poverty/poor’, ‘gender’, ‘equity’, ‘equality’, ‘justice’, ‘race’, ‘racism’, ‘human dignity/rights’, ‘equal value’ and
Representing an interdisciplinary approach in a study of curricular texts, this study draws on research of various kinds. Crucial empirical and theoretical influences are introduced below.
What characterises children’s and young people’s moral or ethical understandings, and how these are sustained and developed through education, are matters of concern both politically and scientifically. In a Swedish research tradition, over the years, empirical studies on children’s life questions and ethical attitudes have explored the morality of children and youth, with considerable concern for the well-being of oneself, family, friends and others, and also care for the environment, being demonstrated (cf. Hartman & Torstensson-Ed
Addressing how education might be developed, Van der Walt (
Recently, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO
In political science, from a gender theoretical perspective, matters of access for all and inclusion in relation to a societal common good, given systemic oppression, have been dealt with by Young (
According to the well-known distinctions by Goodlad and Su (
This study, in the terminology of Goodlad and Su (
In a recent research review of the field of ethics and moral education including 1940 peer-reviewed articles, the articles were screened regarding the understanding of ‘ethical competence’ that emerged (Osbeck et al.
One exception to this is a study by Korim and Hanesová (
This present study has a parallel study, focusing on the same five contexts as here and in line with the study by Korim and Hanesová (
Given the background discussed in the previous sections, the focus of this study is on school curricula in five different contexts and how they describe ethical competence regarding class, gender and race, backed by an interest in social justice, a presupposition for education understood as a global common good. The aim of the study is to
Furthermore, as part of the interest in social justice and the choice of Namibia and South Africa as two contexts in this study, the study has a second aim to
As indicated, the study uses qualitative content analysis with a focus on meanings and contexts in the study of the chosen texts (cf. Vaismoradi, Turunen & Bondas
The first study of the comparison of the curricula (Sporre forthcoming) from the five contexts also studied here has the same methodological approach as the present one, but, as indicated, with a different focus. Of interest in that study is a broad overall characterisation of the ethics or values education that the five curricula demonstrate. The electronically available curricula, adopted between 2005 and 2011 and in use in 2015 when the study began,
In this study, the same material (the five curricula) has been analysed using other search terms: ‘poverty/ poor’, ‘gender’, ‘equity’, ‘equality’, ‘justice’, ‘race’, ‘racism’, ‘human dignity’, ‘human rights’, ‘equal value’ and
The choice of the five contexts deserves some explanation. As the study originates in a Swedish research context, the Swedish curriculum was an obvious choice. Comparing Sweden with countries outside Europe could provide interesting material for reflection and curricular development, not least as some comparative research in a European context exists (cf. Korim & Hanesová
The researcher’s familiarity with South Africa and, to some extent, Namibia opened up for the possibility to include these contexts. Combining these two countries with a state in the USA and a province in Canada gave a set-up of these two countries that have recently left apartheid with two ‘older’ democracies, plus Sweden, one of the Nordic welfare states, which is also an older democracy.
In the cases of Namibia, South Africa and Sweden, the curricula are national, while in the USA and Canada, national curricula do not exist; thus, a state and a province ended up being adequate choices. Research colleagues familiar with these contexts suggested the two alternatives as ones that could be of interest. As the intention was to provide variation but still keep the material from becoming too extensive, it seemed reasonable not to include more than five contexts. This offered the opportunity to go into detail regarding the content.
Furthermore, the study was delimited to curricular texts for compulsory school not only to focus on basic education, but also to avoid an overload of material. In Sweden, school is compulsory for 9 years, which is also the case in South Africa. In Namibia, 7 years in school are compulsory. In the USA and Canada, this varies between states and provinces. To achieve comparable material, it was primarily grades 1–9 that were compared, but when a year in preschool used the same curriculum as primary school, that preschool year was included. The next delimitation of studied curricular texts was to identify the school subjects in which ethics education or its equivalent is present. In the Swedish case, the syllabus for the school subject
Discussing analysis in qualitative research, Vaismoradi et al. (
As a more general methodological comment, it can be noted that comparing curricula from five different contexts and focusing on their content raise a number of issues, initially that of getting to know the respective contexts well, but later also how to structure the comparison, and finally, how to report on the study to make the results communicable. As mentioned, in this study as in the other one (Sporre forthcoming), I use the term ‘ethical competence’
What ethical competence for compulsory schooling do curricula from Namibia, South Africa, California in the USA, Québec in Canada and Sweden prescribe regarding how social justice is expressed through aspects such as class, gender and race, as well as human dignity and human rights?
A search through the syllabi of RME from grades R up to 9 for Namibia using the search terms ‘poverty/ poor’, ‘gender’, ‘equity’, ‘equality’, ‘justice’, ‘race’, ‘racism’, ‘human dignity’, ‘equal value’ and
The use of the same search terms, as in the Namibian case, in the study of the South African syllabi of Life Skills (grades R–6) and Life Orientation (grades 7–9) revealed a clear desire to leave behind the divisions of apartheid and build a society based on democratic values, social justice and human rights. Gender was mentioned as one of the background aspects amongst others, such as socio-economic background, race, physical ability or intellectual ability – aspects that are not to matter in the provision of good opportunities for education. The notion of human dignity was not used, but dignity was mentioned once, in this case connected to religions: students in Grade 6 are to learn what is said about dignity in a variety of religions in South Africa. In Grade 7, human rights, as stated in the Constitution of South Africa, assume a crucial role. In summary, ethical competence is to include equal treatment and respect for the rights of all, leaving behind the divisions of the past.
When the Californian H-SSF was analysed for the search terms and what characterises the ethical literacy it prescribes, different search terms emerged as being of importance as compared to Namibia and South Africa. The crucial values relating to ethical competence are equality and justice: equality between all human beings, and justice in front of the state, the nation. Gender equality emerges as something important, contemporarily related to women, and to be studied mainly in a historic perspective, within the provided historic framework of H-SSF. Race and racism are also to be approached historically – also revealing the overall historic construction of the H-SSF. Within a cultural literacy, students need to develop respect for the human dignity of all people, and an understanding of different cultures and ways of life is highlighted. So, ethical competence emphasises justice, individual rights, the equality of all and respect for the human dignity of all people.
In the ERC programme of the Province of Québec, the search terms point to a focus on justice as an ethical theme, to be explored in more detail towards the latter stages of compulsory school. Equal value and equality are mentioned as crucial, along with a mention of respect for others. Human dignity is connected to social life in society and as something the programme in general should make students aware of. However, gender equality, or race equality or racism, is not mentioned. Ethical competence is thus emphasised to mean a recognition in a general sense of matters of justice and human dignity, ascribed to all.
The Swedish syllabus for Knowledge of Religion(s) emphasises equality, especially gender equality, in the syllabus for the ethics subtheme. Underlined for the early school years are basic human rights, including children’s rights, as an expression of the equality of all people. When the foundational values and the equal value of all human beings are stated and a non-discriminatory agenda is mentioned in the preamble to the overall curriculum, race and racism are not mentioned, whereas ‘gender, ethnic affiliation, religion or other belief systems, transgender identity or its expressions, sexual orientation, age or functional impairment’ are mentioned (Lgr 2011). Because of the emphasis put, ethical competence must be said to include awareness of matters related to gender equality and the importance of basic human rights.
In Namibia, ethical competence includes gender justice and respect for other human beings and nature. The idea of respect for all human beings is introduced via the concept of
There may seem to be a great deal of similarities between the five cases regarding the studied matters; however, when the expressions are studied in their contexts, in the actual texts, the differences become obvious. For instance, the ways the Namibian, South African and Swedish curricula frame the matters have a considerably more gender-equality and intersectionality approach to matters of equality and justice, as compared to curricula from California and Québec. The curricula from these two latter contexts reflect perspectives whereby equality and citizen rights are generally understood, as if all individuals are on equal standing and discrimination or oppression need not be problematised as part of an ethical competence to be learnt.
Human dignity is not used much at all as a concept in any of the curricula. My expectation was to find it emphasised in South African and Namibian curricula as something important, explicitly mentioned to strive for, but it was not. However, in the ERC programme, human dignity is actively used as one goal to make students aware of in relation to social life, but in this case as something equally shared among all human beings and not something certain individuals having been exposed to discrimination or oppression need to regain. Interesting to note from the contexts in which human dignity is mentioned to some extent (Québec, California and South Africa) is that human dignity is connected to religions, suggesting that studies of religions can contribute an understanding of what human dignity means.
So where do this comparison and the different curricular approaches take us? What is to be learnt in ethics? What ethical competence is to be developed? The UNESCO report from 2015 underlines the need to rethink education, specified with the direction ‘towards a common good?’. In doing this, the authors of the report distance an understanding of the common good in education from the conceptual framework of education as a public good (UNESCO
When aspects of social justice and their expression in curricula as examples of ethical competence have been explored in this study, variations in emphasis have emerged. This refers to variations such as which aspects of concrete justice issues – like gender equality, racial justice, fairness
Starting this discussion of variations and future directions regarding social justice in matters of race and racism, the South African curriculum is the one context in which such matters are addressed through an explicit naming of them, emphasising the need to leave behind discrimination based on race. The results of the research review by Lynch et al. (
Moving next to class as an issue in the curricula, the clearest mention of these matters appears in the South African formulation that learners should, irrespective of socio-economic background, be equipped with knowledge, skills and values to, on equal footing, become citizens in a free South Africa. In the other contexts, related matters can be said to be indirectly present through formulations of equality, generally, and equal access to education; however, in analogy with the reasoning above around the Swedish curriculum, such ‘non-explicit mention’ may mean a concealing of matters, that is, those of economic inequality or class. However, in the Namibian case, with its well-developed and detailed syllabus for RME, in Grade 6 as part of a theme on African traditions and the human community, also called
Gender and gender equality comprise the aspect of social justice that is most often explicitly mentioned when comparing the three studied aspects of race, class and gender. It appears most clearly in the Swedish curriculum, followed by the Namibian, South African and Californian curricula. In the ERC, there is no mention of gender. If the way in which aspects of power are negotiated
Moving next to matters of human dignity and human rights, starting with human dignity, it is mentioned as an overarching goal in the ERC programme to be recognised and related to showing respect for others. In this programme, as well as in the Californian and South African ones, human dignity is connected to religions and is said to find an expression within them. In Sporre (
In the Namibian curriculum, ‘human dignity’ is not used as a term, but the RME curricula show an interesting ethos. The Namibian curriculum has a focus on the student as a person coming to school already with a worldview, with a self to be understood and respected, not only by students themselves but also by teachers and schoolmates, indicating an interpretation of human dignity expressed in other words, as part of an
Coming next to human rights, this is the search term for which the least differences are noticeable as all curricula mention it, even though the ways in which this is done vary. In both Namibia and Sweden, human rights comprise a crucial theme for the early years of school, up to Grade 3, but are also to be dealt with further on. The South African curricula for grades 7 and 8 prescribe a study of human rights in the light of the new constitution. The H-SSF curriculum gives importance to human rights as an important part of an ethical literacy, but does not offer much information regarding how to undertake the study. The ERC programme, briefly addressing matters of human rights, repeatedly refers to Canada’s and Québec’s rights charters. Although the approaches vary, it seems obvious that human rights in the five contexts have a status of recognised moral conventions in line with UNESCO (
A discussion of ethical competence in compulsory school, contemporarily and from a social justice perspective, also needs to consider the emphasis on matters of sustainability as a social justice issue. In the UNESCO (
In response to the research question for this study, the results above have shown variations and offered insights into various ways of approaching matters of social justice as ethical concerns in school curricula. In dialogue with other research, the results have also been elaborated on and expanded. But some methodological questions need to be raised; for instance, to what extent are the curricula comparable? Or, are the societal contexts so divergent so as to render comparisons of the curricula, if not impossible, still what could maybe be described as ‘unfair’? Does, for example, the historic approach that characterises the H-SSF curriculum from California make it complex to compare with the others, not bound by such an emphasis? Does the chosen pedagogical method there mean that when contemporary social justice issues are to be studied through interpretations of historic events, this makes contemporary issues less visible in the curriculum? Or – another matter – does the degree of concretisation that the Namibian curriculum for RME represents make it emerge more clearly than, for example, the Swedish one, which is not as detailed? Or does a more ‘general values’ orientation of the curricula from South Africa become a disfavour as compared to the more strongly ‘ethics education’ focus of the ERC programme when ethical competence is studied?
Questions like the ones above cannot be answered. That the compared curricula are different from one another could be expected, as this is how curricula operate, and the interest here is in the content variations. Methodologically speaking, being careful and nuanced in descriptions throughout the analysis and when reporting were efforts on the part of the author. Taken together, I argue that the variations shown can be of interest not only to researchers and policy-makers from these five contexts, but also to others with an interest in how to develop relevant ethical competence in relation to social justice in compulsory school education. This is valid not only from policy points of view, but also from the perspectives of classrooms, that is, in schools or teacher education.
Earlier, I argued for the choice of four of the included contexts, in contrast to the Swedish, as representing various contexts outside Europe. However, the choice of contexts also implied a conscious effort to let research in the Global North enter into dialogue with realities of the Global South, so as to contribute towards breaking up patterns of domination through existing knowledge systems and create comparisons that stretch beyond these. My estimate is that this endeavour, for example, highlighted the silencing of matters of racism,
I also deem it valuable to have used ethical competence as a heuristic tool in this study. This has ‘freed’ the curricular material from being classified into categories such as moral education, character education, moral development, religious education or others, which has served the study and opened up for the specific curricular content.
The present comparison of curricula from Namibia, South Africa, California (USA), Québec (Canada) and Sweden has explored how aspects of social justice are expressed in the curricula.
Demonstrating a number of variations, the study concludes that an active curricular mention of social justice aspects, such as race, class and gender, can provide more clarity as to the relevance of matters of social justice by making them more visible when directions for the forming of an ethical competence are sought.
The use of an intersectional perspective in the understanding of how patterns of power interact can, for example, come to promote gender equality – and thereby make the social justice aspects of race, class and gender an integrated part of ethical competence. In a rethinking of education (cf. UNESCO
For policy-makers, this study can serve as a challenge to more seriously take on the task of formulating ethical competence in dialogue with contemporary social challenges, and not shy away from morally complex issues like class, gender and race.
The author has declared that she has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article.
K.S. is the sole author of this research article.
This article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This study is part of the research project EthiCo I funded by the Swedish Research Council 2015–2018 (Grant no. 2014-2030).
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.
In 2015, the Californian and Namibian curricula were under revision, but the curricula then in use are the ones that were studied.
Using ‘democracy’ as a signifier raises crucial questions and opens for a number of critical contemporary problems, for example, regarding the representation and influence of minorities, the use of media by political leaders and, in general, the active involvement of citizens in politics. Here, the term is used to point to the shift in Namibia and South Africa leaving apartheid behind and the opening of the voting systems to all, irrespective of race or skin colour, in 1990 and 1994, respectively. However, the problems of equal rights and access to the political arena remain issues to be dealt with in all five contexts, regardless of their democracy being ‘younger’ or ‘older’.
In Sporre (forthcoming), the discussion on ‘ethical competence’ and the use of the concept as a heuristic tool is elaborated in detail.