Kindergarten Teachers and Moral Education for Young Children: Why Do Narratives Matter?

DOI

10.2991/icece-16.2017.52How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Narratives, Moral Education, Young Children

Abstract

This paper reports a study on kindergarten teachers' use of narratives in the teaching and learning of moral education. The study posed the question: why do kindergarten teachers use narratives in teaching and learning moral education for young children? The study took place in two kindergartens in Indonesia, one an Islamic kindergarten located on the outskirts of Jakarta, and the second kindergarten a public kindergarten, non-faith based, located in South Jakarta. A total of 14 teachers were selected based on purposive sampling. Participants were selected for their sensitivity, knowledge, and insight into their experience. The kindergartens were selected due to their use of storytelling in learning. Primary data collection was through semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus-group discussion. Supplementary data were collected using observation and document analysis. Themes were obtained from coding and categorizing interview transcripts and analysis of documents. Findings revealed three reasons that teachers use narratives in teaching and learning: they believe narrative inspires children to behave prosaically; they believe that narratives motivate children to have good character; and they believe narratives are able to strengthen children's faith in God. The study concluded teachers play an important role in the success of moral education in schools and the quality of moral education through the use of narrative can be improved by improving ways of teachers' understand moral education and the objectives of moral education in the curriculum.

Copyright

© 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Maila Dinia Husni Rahiem
AU  - Nur Surayyah Madhubala Abdullah
AU  - Steven Eric Krauss
PY  - 2016/11
DA  - 2016/11
TI  - Kindergarten Teachers and Moral Education for Young Children: Why Do Narratives Matter?
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Early Childhood Education (ICECE 2016)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 301
EP  - 306
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icece-16.2017.52
DO  - 10.2991/icece-16.2017.52
ID  - DiniaHusniRahiem2016/11
ER  -