“Far from being destined to specialists only, this rich and pleasant book is a tactful analysis of crucial social issues faced by pupils in school that mirror issues at play in the wider society around them. It will provide great interest for psychologists, anthropologists, educators, social workers as well as to anyone interested in schooling, children, youth and in the power dynamics operating in urban multicultural communities.” (Anthropological Notebooks, 1 October 2014)
Children’s Moral Lives deserves to become a classic. Gorgeously written and theoretically up-to-date, Ruth Woods’ gift to us is this up close account of the actual moral conflicts faced by children in a multicultural West London primary school. She helps us understand how moral communities are grounded in multiple and often conflicting values, including concerns for loyalty and respect for status as well as protection from harm. Start your readings on moral development with Jean Piaget but then be sure to read Ruth Woods.―Richard A Shweder, Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago
From the Inside Flap
Children’s Moral Lives provides a rich account of moral events in children’s lives. Based on observation, interviews and questionnaires at a large multicultural primary school, it offers a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes of children’s everyday lives into the complex moral issues they routinely negotiate.
The book shows that while school rules focus on the value of welfare and harm avoidance, children invest in a range of additional, and sometimes conflicting, values, such as loyalty, reciprocity, toughness and status. Almost all previous research on moral development has involved individual interviews by researchers unknown to the child. In this case, the author spent over two years gaining children’s trust, and as a result provides insights into aspects of child morality that have previously been overlooked. In so doing, she not only aids professionals seeking to understand children’s experiences in the peer group, but also contributes to theoretical debates about the nature and development of morality in children.
From the Back Cover
Children’s Moral Lives provides a rich account of moral events in children’s lives. Based on observation, interviews and questionnaires at a large multicultural primary school, it offers a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes of children’s everyday lives into the complex moral issues they routinely negotiate.
The book shows that while school rules focus on the value of welfare and harm avoidance, children invest in a range of additional, and sometimes conflicting, values, such as loyalty, reciprocity, toughness and status. Almost all previous research on moral development has involved individual interviews by researchers unknown to the child. In this case, the author spent over two years gaining children’s trust, and as a result provides insights into aspects of child morality that have previously been overlooked. In so doing, she not only aids professionals seeking to understand children’s experiences in the peer group, but also contributes to theoretical debates about the nature and development of morality in children.
About the Author
Dr. Ruth Woods is currently a Research Fellow in a multidisciplinary team at the University of Aberdeen, UK, and an Associate of Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. A psychologist by training, Ruth completed her PhD among anthropologists, learning to apply ethnographic methods to psychological questions. Ever since, she has combined quantitative and qualitative methods and analyses in innovative ways to improve our understanding of how children conceive and experience morality, aggression, friendship, and ethnic identity. She has published on these topics in a series of journal articles.
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