Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND December 2015 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 Analyzing the Concept of Moral Intelligence in the view of Curriculum Reconceptualists Saeed Vaziri Yazdi Department of Curriculum Development, Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan Branch, Esfahan, Iran Alireza Yousefi Department of Medical Education, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Esfahan, Iran Tel: 0913-116-1037. E-mail: [email protected] Narges Keshtiaray Department of Curriculum Development, Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan Branch, Esfahan, Iran Abstract Morals and its education, suggest the precise frameworks of how to be and how sublime and sacred life is. Evaluating the relationship between morals and rationality for education officers, moral education in particular, is very important. A vast majority of experts believe that morals and moral skills can be strengthened and promoted through education. This article is aimed at achieving a new sense of Moral Intelligence structures from a comparative viewpoint of the perspective of moral intelligence theorists and curriculum reconceptualists. The current research considered qualitative research in terms of method and is a case of content analysis. The areas studied in this research include textbooks such as opinions on the latest insights of moral intelligence Michele Borba and Thomas Lickona, as well as the opinions of the ethical issues considered by some curriculum reconceptualists such as Dwayne Huebner, Maxine Greene and Nel Noddings. The authors of the present study tried to explore the meaning and virtues of moral intelligence such as basic human traits, being assessed, assessing worthwhile, virtuous character, truth and honesty, self-development, responsibility, devotion, intimacy, inner guard, continence, respect, kindness, justice, wisdom and humility. In addition, they achieved certain common points among the studied theorists, including moral competence development through training, task of school and curriculum on ethical issues, moral teaching art and the role of religion in the development of moral virtues. Keywords: Moral Intelligence, Curriculum, Reconceptualism. http://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/index Page 2091 Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND December 2015 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 Introduction How can we incorporate the spiritual, mental and moral world into the world of school and classroom, in a way that the students can take advantage of daily living and feed it? How can we combine the knowledge and wisdom with the spirit of relaxation and calm it down in postmodern and metacognition age? How can we enrich the people’s internal lives and embed eternal capital in them? How can we make fundamental changes in education, and what is the main direction of these changes and developments? How can we direct the changes in education towards morals via precise training? How can we regain the joy missing in the huge load of the educational textbooks and painful exams to students and restore inner calmness and confidence in them in order to increase their life expectancy? With what order can we realize these reforms, changes and developments in our students? (Miller, 2002) Today, all experts agree that education is the only way to achieve perfect man, and subsequently, is the unique way to achieve desirable communities. Proper education can lead the individual to goodness and happiness, and beautiful and desired life, and can put him in the direction of perfection and growth, therefore education considers the future. Education determines that humanity has not completed its task, but it is just getting started. Education is not pessimist; rather, it is a promising window to hope and brightness (Mayer, 1996). Today’s society is confronted with critical crises related to our children; our most important possessions. Everyone agree on the existence of this problem. Legislators, physicians, clergymen, businessmen, educators, parents and the general community also express similar concerns, and we all should be concerned about it. These defects, shortcomings and weaknesses are related to the moral virtues of our children. If parents were asked what kind of children they desire, many of the answers would be the same; it is natural that everyone wants children who are responsible, kind, polite, obedient, caring and interested in their education. In other words, the goal of educating children for many parents is clear while the path to reach the target for them is unclear. Is having a healthy child sufficient to achieve these goals? Why as soon as children grow up, parents do not find the appropriate language to communicate with them and the children complain of not being understood? Why are most of the disputes and conflicts in life due to disability in communicating and the lack of empathy and self- control? The reality is that most of us do not know that we have moral and behavioral characteristics rooted in our childhood and we are educating our child today, turning to adulthood with moral characteristics that are the product of today’s education. One of the aspects of development, from childhood to adult years, as well as other aspects of growth, is children's moral development. When people talk about moral development, they refer to their behaviors and attitudes towards other individuals in their society. In other words, they are following social norms, regulations, customs and practices. To put it in simple words, in the case of children, we have described their ability to distinguish between the right and the wrong (Borba, 2005). In the 1980s, the United States was faced with increased sexual activities and the need to change the bases of self-education. The major change occurred in 1995 when the United States Congress announced federal laws enforcing implementation of programs for training self-control. Sexual affairs are extremely sensitive and vulnerable. Some character educators regard it as a result of the fear of weakened character education at a broader level; therefore, this issue is like ignoring the elephant in the room. Sex is prevalent in every corner of the http://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/index Page 2092 Special Issue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND December 2015 CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 quite sexy society of America. To all teenagers, perceiving sex and making decisions on it are growing key practices. At this destructive level of life, some young people make mistakes that harm themselves, others and the society. Although pregnancy among adolescent girls has decreased in the United States in comparison with the 1990s, three out of every ten teenage girls experience pregnancy at least once. Furthermore, about 30 percent experience an abortion. One out of every four teenagers is suffering from sexually-transmitted diseases. Teen sex is followed with high levels of depression and increased violence due to decreased self-esteem. Fatherless families are major places fostering distracted teenagers. Journal of Pediatrics reported sex-related suicide rate among the girls of 12 to 16 years was six times more than virgin girls. Self-control training was followed with risk prevention instead of reducing it. This encouraged teenagers, apart from respect for themselves and others, to avoid all the risks of sexually-transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and mental trauma resulting from improper sexual relations. The change in character development education in the United States was very effective at the elementary level (5 to 10 years), had less significant effects at the level of middle school (11 to 13 years) and at the level of high school had the lowest rate (14 to 18 years); however, high school students were most at risk of mistakes. After all, if we do not make effective efforts concerning character education at the high school level, we have wasted all our activities for character development in youth (Lickona, 2014). So, if we hope to renew our moral culture, we have to change our manner. In undertaking that formidable task, we do well to remember the old proverb, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Education of the next generation is the way society renews itself. Our best hope for the future is to try to prevent pathology by promoting health. One of the best ways to do this is to deliberately foster the virtues necessary for individuals and societal flourishing. We must do it with the belief that every human being has the capacity for goodness, however deep it may be buried, and that we retain that capacity throughout our lives. How can we do a better job of nurturing the human capacity for virtue—in our families, schools, and communities? What virtues should we foster? Any effort to promote virtue in a person or society must begin by asking: what are the virtues that comprise good character and contribute to a fulfilling life and a healthy culture (Lickona, 2012). One aspect of development from childhood to adult years, alongside other forms of development, is moral development of children. When people talk about moral development, they refer to their own attitudes and behavior towards other people in the community. In the other words, they consider the fact that we follow social norms, rules, traditions and customs. Simply put, in respect with children, we describe their ability to distinguish between the right and the wrong. Moral intelligence is a relatively new issue. As emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence are different from each other, moral intelligence is a completely separate intelligence. Moral intelligence is the capacity to understand the good from the bad stuffs. From the perspective of practical intelligence, the capacities have become an educational process to values and morals (Ismaili Tarzi et al, 2014). Moral intelligence is the ability to distinguish right from wrong, which is consistent with universal principles. Moral intelligence is common in different cultures. Moral intelligence, as the ability to use universal moral principles, is one of the principle goals and transactions. In terms of perception, judgment about good and evil deeds is rooted in universal principles and crosses all cultural barriers.