La recherche présentée s’intéresse à la faisabilité du projet d’un enseignement moral explicite dans les programmes de l’école élémentaire de 2008 à 2013. Le retour de la morale dans les Instructions officielles survient comme un moyen de remédiation à l’affaiblissement des valeurs républicaines dans l’école mais aussi dans la société en général, or ce projet semble empêché par une démocratie couplée à un individualisme croissant. Discipline noble sous la IIIe République, l’enseignement moral a été effacé des programmes dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Réapparu en 2008, nous étudions les conséquences de la rupture dans l’histoire de cet enseignement. Dans les pratiques d’enseignement moral, nous constatons une transformation des valeurs républicaines : liberté, égalité, fraternité et de leurs corollaires : autonomie, neutralité et tolérance réinterrogeant les notions d’autorité, de responsabilité et de respect. Nous relions ces constats à la laïcité et aux enjeux du maintien d’un pluralisme des opinions et des croyances. Nous recherchons également si le corps enseignant et les pratiques pédagogiques soutiennent ce projet d’enseignement. Notre travail de recherche croise l’étude des conditions de faisabilité d’un projet à celle de la mise en œuvre de l’enseignement moral aujourd’hui. Notre approche est historique, philosophique et pédagogique. Le corpus de données est établi à partir de trois sources : des documents d’obligation, des observations en classe et des entretiens menés auprès de professeurs des écoles. La mise en œuvre du projet d’enseignement moral requiert un cadre avec des finalités et des modalités clairement définies ; une formation initiale et continue des enseignants complète, prenant en compte les dimensions de la poiesis et de la praxis. / The research presented focuses on the feasibility of a project of explicit moral education in the curriculum of the elementary school from 2008 to 2013. This project for the reintroduction of morality in the Official Instructions comes as a means to remedy the weakening of republican values within the school itself and in society in general, but the implementation of this project seems to be prevented by a democracy coupled with a growing individualism.Considered as the keystone under the Third Republic, moral education lost its importance during the second half of the twentieth century until the word "moral" was erased in school curriculum. It reappeared suddenly in 2008. We analyze the consequences of the rupture in the history of this teaching. In moral teaching practices, we note the transformation of the republican values : freedom, equality, fraternity and their corollaries : autonomy, neutrality and tolerance re-examining the notions of authority, responsibility and respect. We link these findings to secularism and the challenge of maintaining a pluralism of opinions and beliefs. We are also investigating whether the teaching profession and teaching practices support the implementation of this project.Our research work combines the study of the feasibility of such project with that of the implementation of moral education in classrooms today. Our approach is historical, philosophical and pedagogical. The corpus of data is drawn from three sources : official instructions, classroom observations and interviews with school teachers.The implementation of the moral education project requires a framework with clearly defined aims and modalities ; initial and in-service teacher training, taking into account the dimensions of poiesis and praxis.

The state of moral decline has recently come under scrutiny in South Africa and abroad. Moral development is nurtured and developed by moral teaching. South Africa has put in place various avenues for moral education in order to curb moral degeneration. However, due to the continuing social ills that are experienced in the country further avenues of moral education ought to be explored. Due to the multicultural nature of the South African population, moral considerations should consider the strengths that cultural diversity in moral education can contribute toward a moral society. Moral teachings have been explored through education and religious chastity; however, the indigenous knowledge systems of South Africans have not been tapped in this regard. This is partly because the scientific world has not seen it fit to accommodate these knowledges in the knowledge production sphere. The study employed a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore the role of traditional teachings in Batswana female initiation schools and how the traditional teachings contribute to morality and the construction of womanhood. A decolonial epistemic perspective, the African epistemology and social constructionism were used as concepts that formed a framework to allow the critiquing of main stream theories and to allow a grounded theory to emerge from a Batswana female initiation context. Unstructured interviews with initiation instructors as primary data sources were conducted. Secondary data sources included initiation songs and dance; conversations with people who are involved in initiation schools, people who are knowledgeable in Setswana culture and the cultural celebration that the researcher attended were used. The textual data was analysed using the Attride Sterling model of thematic networks. Womanhood as a particular identity and female morality as mainly determined by context are the main themes in the study. Womanhood and morality are intertwined within this context that determines womanhood according to acceptable behaviours. An ethic of responsibility was the overarching theme when analyzing how female morality and womanhood is constructed in the context of initiation schools in Taung. / Psychology / M.A. (Research Consultation)