Community and Activity Dimensions: Essentials for the moral and values educator

The field of moral and values education lacks a comprehensive theory; instead, there are various models, some of them contradictory. This article emphasises the two essential dimensions not detailed adequately in other models: 1. The community dimension deals with the widening concentric circles of belonging and group identification of the individual (class/school; local community/region; nation/world); and 2. The activity framework dimension includes formal education, informal education (youth groups and youth movements) and semi-informal education in the schools. Having defined the two dimensions, the article classifies the existing models according to the dimensions they emphasise, i.e. (1) the widening circles of content; (2) content; (3) educational factors; (4) moral process towards application; (5) moral/value oriented approaches or theories; and (6) psychological approaches/theories. The difficulties of applying the existing models are explained, contrasting them with the community and activity dimensions. The last section proposes a readily applicable two-dimensional model for the educator, as an addition to the existing ones.