Moral Education in Holland

Abstract The Netherlands is a small country with a pluralistic, multicultural population. A short historic review of moral education reveals the roots of Dutch society. In accordance with the diversity of life?stances, the identities of schools vary (Catholic, Protestant, state?schools) and they offer different forms of moral education. In this article moral education is defined as a process of actively exploring vital questions in which awareness and development of values giving direction to moral behaviour are stressed. Some ten recent projects in moral education within certain disciplines or crossing subject boundaries are described in terms of their starting?points, objectives and curriculum materials. Most projects are appropriate to the secondary level. Special attention is paid to moral education within religious and humanistic education projects. After a brief description of teacher training in moral education some concluding remarks are made. These refer to the conceptual differences between moral education in Holland and in the USA and to the relatively weak position of moral education in Dutch schools