This is a study about the following of Astrid Lindgren’s books The Brothers Lionheart and Mio, my son. The purpose of this study is to find out how moral development according to Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory may apply to the books protagonists. I have used a hermeneutic method for the analysis of Lindgren’s books. The books belong to the category children’s literature which is a valuable contribution to teaching from many aspects. The study shows that the books are well suited for teaching because there are many ethical questions to be discussed. The books may also help the pupils with their questions about life and help them to create their very own identity. Throughout the books the pupils get to learn about loneliness and how to handle it.

This bachelor's thesis examines three books in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The aim is to increase understanding for what Harry Potter could contribute in terms of morality in religious studies, and how the story about Harry Potter, as a popular literary phenomenon, can be helpful for this. Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development is central to this essay. I have used an hermeneutic method for the analysis of the Harry Potter books. The result shows that the main character, Harry Potter, can be seen as kind of a role model when it comes to moral development. Pupils may benefit by reading this book series because it can open their eyes to life questions and moral values. Identity formation, loyalty and fellowship are issues that the reader will be able to recognize and relate to in the Harry Potter books. Therefore it is relevant to use the Harry Potter books in teaching of religion. Life questions and moral values are also stressed in the syllabus for religious studies in junior high school. Furthermore the character Harry Potter does follow the moral development theory developed by Kohlberg, though it seems like the various stages are not separated, but rather integrated with each other. Harry Potter changes both intellectually and emotionally according to the magical world of Hogwarts school of wizardry and witchcraft.

CHARLES UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PhD programme studied subject - education DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Vliv dlouhodobého pobytu jedince v dětském domově na jeho morální vývoj Effect of Long-term Residence of Individual in Children's Home to His Moral Development Mgr. Petr Šusta Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Jaroslav Koťa Prague 2018 Abstract and keywords The dissertation thesis elaborates on the effect of the long-term residence of an individual in a children's home to his moral development. The dissertation thesis includes theoretical and empirical parts and the aim of the thesis is to find and eventually describe differences in the level of moral development of children and teenagers experienced with a long-therm residence in a children's home and subjects without this expirience. It has been gained and collected results of the original research in accordance with the methodology of Lawrence Kohlberg in cooperation with children from the children's homes and children from usuall families as control group. There are elaborated these topisc in the theoretical part of the thesis: institutional foster care in the Czech Republic, methodological research issues of the level of moral development in accordance with the theory of Lawrence Kohlberg. The empirical part of the dissertation thesis defines...

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the moral reasoning of people with mild intellectual disability, as well as to find out their understanding of more abstract terms of the moral domain, what the principle of their deciding is, and which values are important for them. In the first part, the thesis concentrates on the influence of the intellectual disability on the cognitive, emotional and personality aspects of the subjects. It also introduces several theories of the moral development, moral structure and values, and finally, the thesis presents the outcomes of the foreign research focused on the moral reasoning of people with intellectual disability. In six case studies in the empirical part, the thesis demonstrates the moral reasoning of people with mild intellectual disability, who have been respondents of exploratory interviews. In the concluding part, the thesis attempts to find some identical significant moments which might be characteristic of moral reasoning of people with mild intellectual disability, and put them into the context of other research and theories.

The focus of this research was to identify the moral reasoning and moral judgment of elementary school principals who serve in high-poverty schools. The study was undertaken at the request of the client public school district who was attempting to identify characteristics of current elementary principals serving in high-poverty schools. Two research questions guided this study concerning the moral operational level of the principals. The theoretical framework of the study was based on the work of Lawrence Kohlberg and his stages of moral development. Participating principals were administered the Defining Issues Test-2 (DIT-2), a pencil-paper questionnaire that presented five moral dilemmas and a series of statements asking for the participant to rank solutions to the dilemmas. The results indicated that the majority of participants operated from lower levels of moral development, reasoning, and judgment. Participants’ scores were matched with their schools’ performance grades. There was not an indication that high moral scores and high school performance were linked. This study confirmed the results of an early study conducted by Vitton and Wasonga (2009) and encourages a deeper examination of the results of accountability and principal decision making.

Previous research by Vitton & Wasonga (2009) and Strenth (2013) found public school K-12 principals struggling in the moral reasoning and decision-making measures of the second Defining Issues Test ("DIT-2"). In response to these studies, this research sought to collect, to examine, and to compare DIT-2 data for educational leaders at various stages of the principalship track in an effort to determine and/or to isolate the locus of principals' reported underperformance. The moral reasoning and decision-making of regular-education K-12 public school principals and assistant principals in Florida, and current master's degree students in educational leadership programs at a large public Florida university were measured and compared. Research questions were posed: 1) to find the levels of moral reasoning and decision-making reached by acting principals, acting assistant principals, and current master's students in educational leadership programs; 2) to determine if there was a difference between these principals, assistant principals, and master's students in moral reasoning and decision-making; and 3) to see if there was a difference in moral reasoning and decision-making between principals across various years of experience. The DIT-2 was administered anonymously to participants through an online link, and was scored by the University of Alabama's Office for the Study of Ethical Development. Data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical methods principally to determine the degree to which participants reasoned and made decisions based upon personal interests, upon the maintenance of norms, or upon the basis of more sophisticated principles. Results showed master's students in educational leadership outperforming active principals and assistant principals in moral reasoning and decision-making by more often employing sophisticated principles and by more often avoiding choices associated with personal interests. With regard to principals, the difference was statistically significant on DIT-2 N-2 scores (based on ANOVA and t-test results) and P-scores (based on t-test results, but not based on ANOVA results). Principals not only underperformed master's students in educational leadership statistically significantly, but also underperformed active assistant principals in comparisons of group means on DIT-2 sub-scores. This research confirms the prior works of Strenth (2013) and Vitton & Wasonga (2009), where principals had been found to struggle in measures of moral reasoning and decision-making. These consecutive and consistent findings now require consideration, discussion, and action by the array of K-12 public school stakeholders. In response to the startling findings that K-12 principals are significantly underperforming those still aspiring for the principalship, a substantial, alarmed, and sober re-examination must take place as to what has happened to principals in K-12 public schools, and as to what can and must be done about it.

Kazimierz Dabrowski’s psychological theory of positive disintegration is a lesser known theory of personality development that offers an alternative critical perspective of literature. It provides a framework for the characterization of postmodern protagonists who move beyond heroic indoctrination to construct their own self-organized, autonomous identities. Ezra Pound’s The Cantos captures the speaker-poet’s extensive process of inner conflict, providing a unique opportunity to track the progress of the hero’s transformation into a personality, or a man. American Gods is a more fully realized portrayal of a character who undergoes the complete paradigmatic collapse of positive disintegration and deliberate self-derived self-revision in a more distilled linear fashion. Importantly, using a Dabrowskian lens to re-examine contemporary literature that has evolved to portray how the experience of psychopathology leads to metaphorical death—which may have any combination of negative or positive outcomes—has not only socio-cultural significance but important personal implications as well.

The pilot study used in this thesis examined the attitudes and perceptions of a small group of students at the University of North Texas. The participants in this pilot study (n=22) were administered an online music file sharing survey, a Defining Issues Test (DIT), and participated in a small focus group. This thesis also outlined the history and progression of online music piracy in the United States, and addressed four research questions which aimed to determine why individuals choose to engage in the file sharing of copyrighted music online.