International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly And Disabled, Vol.
2, (June)
ISSN 0128-309X 2017
USING MORAL AND ETHICAL STORIES TO INCULCATE VALUES AMONG
PRESCHOOLERS
Vishalache Balakrishnan,
Nadarajan Thambu,
ABSTRACT
Early childhood education is the essential head start for children to develop and become holistic. One method of educating and
inculcating values among children is by using stories. Using stories to teach children values have been in practice for
generations in all walks of society. This research aimed to study the use of moral and ethical stories in inculcating values among
preschoolers. Story-telling has been used in this study in three phases. Phase I is where the preschoolers listen to the story.
Phase II is reading the story and phase III is activity conducted after the story telling session. This study is conducted using the
qualitative approach, using case studies. Research participants are preschoolers between five and six years of age. A focus
group consisting of seven preschoolers was formed for the purpose of data collection. Data was collected using techniques such
as focus group discussions, observation, document analysis (creative drawings of the children). Data collected was analyzed
using the thematic analysis method. The data analyzed showed that physical elements of the story books, language, plot, story
line, characters and pictures as well as illustrations influenced the choice of story books favored by preschoolers. Other than
that, the method of storytelling also is capable of becoming a pedagogical tool to develop moral character among preschoolers.
Keywords: moral, ethical, stories, preschoolers, pedagogical tool
Introduction
Early childhood education is becoming more and more popular in many developing nations. Developed nations are already
transforming their existing preschool education from time to time to suit the current early childhood needs and holistic
development. A solid and happy head start at early childhood education equips children with ample life skills, experiences, self-
confidence and a positive outlook in life. They start as “happy souls” and create a positive environment where ever they are.
According to Dewey (1947), creating a conducive learning environment has to be led by a teacher within the teaching and
learning context. Thus multiple approaches, strategies and techniques needs to be utilized to provide a holistic character to our
young ones who are undergoing different types of 21 st century challenges which we the older generation would not even have
dreamed about. According to Tappan and Brown (1989), stories as an approach to develop and form moral sensitivity among
children is slowly dying in our modern education system. Bruner (1986) agrees that story-telling and use of stories is an effective
way to transform moral experiences to moral knowledge.
Theory Used
One of the contemporary approaches to moral education is the use of stories and narratives to teach values and virtues (Bennett,
1993; Vitz, 1990). Stories provide powerful models for the moral formation of the young (Tappan, 1998). This research is based
on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Vygotsky (1986) explains that what a child can do in cooperation today
he can do on his own tomorrow. It is based on his theory that learning is, at its core, a largely socially mediated activity, and that
real learning takes place in a student’s ZPD. Vygotsky (1978) claim that in order to match instructional strategies to a child’s
developmental capabilities accurately, we must determine not only her “actual developmental level”, but also her “level of
potential development”.
Two levels of development are involved here. First is the level where a child is able to understand and resolve problems without
anyone’s help. Then comes the potential developmental level. This is where Vygotsky (1978) focused on mostly in his research.
Vygotsky (1978) conceptualized ZPD as a way of viewing what children are coming to know. He argued that the actual level of
development finally provides an inadequate measure of the state of the child’s development. The state of development is never
defined only by what has matured. Vygotsky (1978) uses the analogy of a garden and a gardener. A meaningful story to explain
ZCD. He says that a gardener, who decides only to evaluate the matured or harvested fruits of the apple tree, cannot determine
the state of his orchard. He says maturing trees must also be taken into consideration. Meaning, a psychologist also must not
limit his analysis to functions that have matured but also consider those that are in the process of maturing.
Vygotsky (1978) claimed that what must be confirmed is what the children know and whether they are able to resolve problems
beyond their actual developmental level if they are provided with guidance in the form of prompts or leading questions from
someone more capable. Vygotsky (1978) defined the zone as: “… the distance between the actual development level as
determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under
adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (p.86). ZPD here aims to aid the preschool children to develop from
social development to individual development and vice versa. Vygotsky (1978, p. 86) named these distances the “buds” or
“flowers” of development to differentiate them from the “fruits” of development that are the functions and abilities that the child
can produce independently. Vygotsky’s framework indicates that after a student receives instructional support from someone
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International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly And Disabled, Vol. 2, (June)
ISSN 0128-309X 2017
more capable in that particular situation, the student internalizes the new idea, knowledge, or skill and is more able to perform
without help in the next similar conflict or problem solving situation.
Narratives and stories are are likely to be accepted when applying Vygotsky’s ZPD. Exposing moral and ethical stories without
probing and problem solving would be towards inculcation of values. However, by using ZPD which has been extended to Zone
of Collaborative Development (ZCD) by Vishalache Balakrishnan (2010) to suit a multicultural learning and growing
environment in Malaysia and other parts of the globe is also taken into consideration.
Morality is fundamentally a “practice” or a form of “conduct” an activity (Oakeshott, 1975). From a Vygotskian (1978)
perspective, moral and ethical stories helped children to attain new and higher levels of moral functioning, with the help by
teachers and more competent peers. This attainments occur initially within the ZPD, as a new forms of moral thinking, moral
feeling, moral action and moral values. This is the essence of moral learning from Vygotskian perspective and it sets the stage
for moral development. Moral functioning, like all forms of higher mental functioning, is mediated by words, language and
forms of discourse (Tappan, 1998). Moral development occurs in the ZPD, among preschoolers by listening, reading and
drawing a character from the story. Story telling enable them to internalize gradually moral values as their habits. When students
are actively engaged in listening the story and involved in a story telling, then a values and virtues is most likely to occur
(Berkowitz & Gibbs, 1983). Internalization of moral values, occurs only in the context of social interactions mediated by story
books, as teacher and peers assist children in moving through the ZPD.
Methodology
The research was conducted using a qualitative approach (Creswell, 2012) in a form of a single case study (Yin, 2009).
Qualitative method is applied because this method is the most appropriate method to be used for sociological study (Lincoln &
Guba,1985). Data was collected from various resources such as observation, group interviews, individual interviews and
document analysis for the triangulation process (Bogdan & Biklen, 2005) to make sure the validity and reliability of the data.
The research design took into consideration children psychology as all participants were below seven years of age. Each research
instrument chosen was modified and simplified to suit the young respondents. The duration for data collection was also different
and suited the mental capacity of each child as well as their moods and attention span.
Research participants were chosen based on purposive sampling as advocated by Creswell (2012). The gatekeepers of the
preschool who were the principal and the teachers teaching the preschoolers had a meeting with researchers and understood why
we requested for a mix group of boys and girls and of different ethnic children. Seven participants were selected between the age
of five and six. The responses from the participants were transcribed and analyzed by using Nvivo version 11, as a tool to store
and manage the data (based on themes and sub-themes), establish the relationship between the data and finally present the
findings based on the key themes. Notably, since this paper applied the qualitative approach, the findings of this paper only
applicable to this particular preschoolers; thus, the findings of this paper cannot be generalized to other preschoolers in Malaysia.
Table 1: Respondents Profile
No Name Sex Age Ethnicity Father’s Mother’s
(Pseudonym) Occupation Occupation
1 Afi Boy 5 years Malay Lecturer Surveyor
2 Ariz Boy 6 years Malay IT Officer Post doc
student
3 Aiman Boy 5 years Malay Administrator Nurse
4 Ruby Girl 6 years Indian Engineer Radiation
Therapist
5 Nancy Girl 5 years Indian Engineer Radiation
Therapist
6 Man Boy 6 years Malay Consultant Lecturer
7 Zah Boy 5 years Arabic Senior Housewife
Lecturer
Ethics in research
As our research involved young participants, we ensured that all aspects of ethics were safeguarded. Guillemin and Gillam
(2004) differentiate between ethics in practice and procedural ethics. Procedural ethics are linked to compliance processes in
conducting research whereas ethics in practice refers to daily issues that emerge when research is being conducted (Israel & Hay,
2006). The main focus here is ethics of care as proposed by Gilligan (1977, 1982) and later extended by Baier (1985), Held
(1993), and Noddings (2003). The emphasis is on care, compassion, and relationship. Ethics of care was central throughout the
research, which according to Gilligan (1977, 1982) refers to care for, emotional commitment to and willingness to act on behalf
of persons with whom one has significant relationship with. The preschoolers were vulnerable group who needed much support
from the research team. Quite a bit of time was spent to build the rapport and obtain trust from them.
Table 2: Research Structure
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International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly And Disabled, Vol. 2, (June)
ISSN 0128-309X 2017
Research Process
Phase Brief Explanation
1 Permisison to conduct research (Procedural ethics)
2 Rapport building with participants (Ethics of care)
3 Data collection procedure
Introduction of story
- Orally/story-telling
- Through question and answer
- Acting out the story
4 Reflection and small talks
Table 3:Research Output
Research Research Data Collection Research Data Emerging Data
Objective Instrument Method Participants Analysia
Method
Types of stories that Interview Interview Seven Thematic Stories on flora
attracts preschoolers protocols Observation preschoolers analysis and fauna
Obesrvation Focus group between five to six Fantasy and
protocols small talks years old imaginative
Document Children stories
Illustration illustrations Stories on
adventure
Story telling Interview Interview Seven Thematic Two-way
methods that protocols Observation preschoolers analysis approach
attracted the Obesrvation Focus group between five to six Interactive
preschoolers protocols small talks years old Filled with action
Audio and video Multi-tasking
recording Activities within
the story telling
Findings and discussion
All research respondents enjoyed the use of stories in the research. The data triangulated from observation, focus group talks and
interviews showed that several factors attracted the preschoolers in knowing the moral or ethics of each value based stories. They
include:
(1) the physical elements of the story books
(2) language,
(3) plot
(4) story line
(5) characters
(6) pictures and illustrations
(7) method of storytelling
The physical elements of the story book
All seven participants liked books which were big and not too small. They liked hard cover books which had pages which were
thick and not easily tear. Based on our observations, they loved to turn the pages frontward and backward so that could be their
rationale for wanting pages which did not easily tear. They did not like very thick story books or story books which had too
many pages.
Below is part of a dialogue with one participant:
Aiman: I like big books..the bigger the better.
Researcher: Why do you like big books?
Aiman: Big books have big pictures…does not tear, friends like to tear books…
Researcher: Don’t you like small story books?
Aiman: Like..but like big books more…like my big house…I like big books.
(TBKF/Vis/07.3.16)
A thick book made is easy for the participants to turn the pages easily. Observation also showed that out of the seven
participants, not even one chose small sized books when it was free reading time. But they also did not choose too big books
which might be a bit difficult for them to handle with their small fingers and hands.
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One other interesting observation we made was the young participants chose books that had “tactile” features. These include
“pop-up” features, and aspects of characters which they could feel. Like the lion’s mane of the dinosaur’s tail which in 3-D forms
on the book cover.
Language
All participants liked books that have simple and short sentences. They also chose books that had words which repeated and
linked with the pictures shown. The word font also influenced their choice of story books. They chose books with big fonts.
When listening to researcher telling the story, participants liked language that had rhythm. It also made them want to repeat such
rhythm words and sentences.
Plot
All participants liked stories that had simple plot, not too long and not too complex. This could refer to their focus or attention
span which is quite short at this stge. However, with interactive story telling method (which will be explained later), they become
very curious and keep expecting for more. The participants like action oriented stories with suspense and surprises in between.
Story line
All participants like story lines that were exciting and gave surprises. They enjoyed stories where characters repeatedly did a
certain action and finally succeeded in their objectives. Like how the dinosaur’s friends made his silly and finally all had a laugh
because they too felt silly for making their friend look silly. A good laugh or some action in between the story line was most
welcomed by the participants.
Characters
All participants liked characters linked directly to nature such as flora and fauna. They drew characters which they liked most
and these characters are as below:
Picture 1: Mother dinosaur and baby dinosaur
Participant explained that the illustration was of a mother and a child, flowers, and all love one other. Thus nature became the
essential element when characters are portrayed by the young participants. The participant was creative in adding the same
number of spikes for the mother and child but making the child’s spike smaller and the mother’s spike bigger. The sign of love in
the upper space was later explained that there was so much love between the mother and the child which they participant could
relate to himself and his mother.
Another illustration shows:
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Picture 2: Participant in a beautiful garden
The participant portraying herself as part of nature and how the flowers, the butterfly and even the clouds are showing love to
each other. The stories had such characters but to blend them all to show love to nature is indeed a very creative way of how the
participant is liking characters of flora and fauna.
Another participant emphasized on human character and drew this picture when asked about what characters he liked in the story
books.
Picture 3: Participant with his family at the movies
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He drew himself as the main character and linked others like his siblings, his parents and the activities he enjoyed doing with
them. This child shows an importance to relationship and how care and compassion is shown to siblings through story characters.
Pictures
All participants liked story books with big clear pictures filled with bright and cheerful colours. It did not matter if pictures were
real of in cartoon form. They were curious about every picture that appeared on each page. As only two of them could read well,
the other five participants understood the stories from the illustrations and pictures in the story books. Every time there was free
reading slot, the participants quickly chose books which were colorful and the “pictures” spoke to them.
Our observation also showed that the young participants believed that the pictures explained the text. They were telling their own
stories to their peers and the researchers based on their understanding of the pictures. They linked the pictures to their “own plot”
and enjoyed their own stories.
Method of Story-telling
All participants loved the research sessions which were conducted for several days in their kindergarten. They were practically
waiting for us at the doorway or waiting to come out of their classroom to join us in our research classroom. That enthusiasm
showed that they enjoyed the story telling sessions and the activities that were conducted within the research period.
Based on the participants’ responses, we found that the students’ love stories told in a two way approach, interactive and action-
oriented. They also like multi-tasking during the story-telling and expected activities to be conducted while stories were being
narrated.
When stories are told with intonation, with changes of voices for different characters, the participants eagerly gave their own
version of voices for good or bad character. Good characters have sweet soft voice where else bad characters were given loud
harsh voices.
Observation also showed that if participants had to passively listen to a story, even though it has earlier interesting elements such
as pictures, characters they like etc, they become bored after sometime. Thus research showed that young participants need to use
their different senses like doing the action of the characters, for example, jumping like a frog or flying like a bird for them to be
in the story rather than just listening to the story.
The inculcation of moral and ethical values happen naturally when the participants are immersed in the stories and they could
relate their own real-life experiences based on what they hear and what they do after the story telling session.
The values come from them and there was no need for researchers to begin with “The moral of the story is…” as in conventional
methods of storytelling.
Part of a small conversation with participants shows the above:
Researcher: What did you learn?
Afi: Cannot shout when answering to a question.
Researcher: Good answer. What else?
Ruby: Yes…slow down your voice when talk to teacher. Then teacher like us.
Researcher: Anything else?
Zah: Cannot disturb your friend…cannot fight…
Azri: They are our friends..we cannot fight..
Researcher: Great answers.
[TBKT/Nad/08.3.16] & [RV2/08.3.16]
Based on the responses of the young participants, we can conclude that stories are a powerful tool to shape characters. Their
illustrations showed how their understanding of the stories is transferred to their own lives with illustrations of good and bad
character, nature, love and compassion.
Way Forward
Among the overall aims and objectives of the research was to identify types of moral and ethical stories that attract preschool
children, physical features of the book, and to what extend stories enable preschool children to relate to their own lives to
develop societal regulations, etiquette in communication and respect for self and others. This research bring back the awareness
about the wonders and effectiveness of stories which have moral and ethical elements in inculcating values among preschoolers.
In recent development, in Malaysia, parents are busy and they do not have time to tell bedtime stories. So tales and stories with
moral content are still read by teachers to their pupils in kindergarten. Thus, this study resolve that, moral and ethical stories play
an important role in children’s moral education. Practice of reading moral tales and stories have an important role in inculcating
moral values among preschoolers. These story books is useful source that provides various arguments for solving moral
dilemmas (Vitz, 1990).
In the first place, stories used in this study contribute to develop children’s moral understanding and values. In fact, narrative
become a starting point for their moral discussion. The result of this study also indicate that, moral and ethical stories have a role
in building the moral identity of the children, especially when they are identifying with the heroes of those tales and stories. In
the second place, stories also influence children’s moral reasoning such as a “good man”, “pity girl”, “bad lady”, “nice friend”
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and so on. Tappan and Brown (1989), support the same view, considering that, children’s storytelling creates authorship of moral
choices when the story told is able to lead to a real moral experience. This study proven that, reading a moral narrative able to
promote moral reasoning, moral values, ethics, and moral behavior. Therefore, moral and ethical stories is a good pedagogical
tool to inculcate moral values among preschoolers.
Young children can understand the world through stories and story books. Tell them the right story and they learn to imitate
appropriate social characters. Tell them the wrong stories and they start imitating characters that seem to misfit into the social
structure. Any direction chosen will proof consequences of the stories and storytelling. As Vygotsky in ZPD (1978) puts it, what
a child learns today from capable peers which are the stories and the story telling pedagogy is used to resolve the child’s own
issues later in other situations.
It is important that selection of stories for preschoolers is prioritized. Based on research completed, children showed that they
enjoy relationship stories which are simple in nature but told in interactive ways. They want to connect stories to their own
feelings and make meaning out of them. Moral and ethical values can be naturally inculcated when stories are used to teach
either in formal or informal setting to the young children.
Acknowledgement
We wish to acknowledge the Ministry of Education, and National Child Development Research Center (NCDRC), Sultan Idris
Education University [File No: 2015-0156-107-04] for the research grant enabling this study to be carried out.
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Vishalache Balakrishnan, PhD
Faculty of Education, University of Malaya,
50603, Kuala Lumpur.
Email:
[email protected]Nadarajan Thambu, PhD
Department of Social Studies & Citizenship
Faculty of Human Science,
Sultan Idris Education University,
35900, Tanjung Malim, Perak.
Email:
[email protected] 15
