There is recent interest in a narrative approach to values education. Perhaps with the intention of responding to needs of the pluralistic, multicultural society emerging at the end of the 1990s, values educators are turning their attention to the role of story telling and narrative in our moral development. This is an important contribution to values education because narrative approaches allow bridges to be built between different individuals and cultures and for a profound understanding of others to become possible. Many of the narrative approaches rest on a fuzzy or narrow definition of moral imagination. My thesis tries to clarify imaginations' abilities and gifts. I have reflected on the writings of Kieran Egan to establish what imagination brings to education and also the relationship between narrative and imagination. The final piece of my thesis sketches an outline of a moral imagination in consultation with two authors: Daniel Maguire and Mark Johnson. Through very different approaches, they both arrive at the idea that it is imagination which in fact underpins moral understanding. Kieran Egan opens the door to the idea of imagination and Daniel Maguire and Mark Johnson complete the picture by pointing out that imagination is our capacity to create moral understanding.

Material goods play an important role in ethical life and moral education. Judging which goods are preferable to which − and which are therefore worth pursuing over which − is an ethically crucial process. The currently dominant paradigms of moral education (virtue education, cognitive developmentalism and care theory) do not satisfactorily contribute to this important topic. I argue that the resultant lacuna may be resolved by attending to the insight of the classical Stoics and their modern day neo-Stoic interpreters. Stoicism, I argue, provides a unique set of philosophical resources that fosters critical deliberation and reflection regarding the attribution of value to material goods. I begin this study by detailing the extant lacuna via discussion of virtue education, cognitive developmentalism and care theory as they relate to material good education. Once the lacuna’s existence is established I move on to introduce Stoic philosophy (both classical and contemporary). From this philosophy I construct a moral educational framework. This framework is then applied to two topics related to the material good lacuna: consumer education and environmental education. I conclude that, while Stoicism must be softened and revised for a modern pedagogical audience, its core philosophy has much to offer moral educationalists. / Theoretical, Cultural, and International Studies in Education

Thesis (MA in Religion Studies)--University of South Australia, 1994

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Georgia Southern University, 2007. / "A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education." Curriculum Studies, under the direction of Grigory Dmitriyev. ETD. Electronic version approved: December 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-147)

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: F.M. Connelly.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-37, 104-113).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1930. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-373).

Thesis (M.I.T.)--The Evergreen State College, 2007. / Title from title screen viewed (6/23/2008). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-104).

Thesis (M.A. in Christian Education)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 1995. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-127).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 76 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-59).