Race, community and moral education: Kohlberg and Spielberg as civic educators

Literature on moral education has contributed surprisingly little to our un derstanding of issues of race and education. The creation of inter-racial c ommunities in schools is a particularly vital antiracist educational goal, one for which public support in the United States has weakened since the 19 70s. As contexts for antiracist moral education, such communities should in volve racially plural groups of students learning about, and engaging in, c ommon aims, some of which must be distinctly antiracist: an explicit concer n to institute racially just nors within the community, (reflecting, yes go ing beyond, Kohlberg's own communitarian justice focus ill his Fust Communi ty schools) and to Jester social justice ill society generally; and an appr eciation of distinct cultural and racial identities within a community. Pop ular culture has an important role to play in providing salient cultural im agery, of inter-racial co-operation and antiracist activity. In this regard , several films of Stephen Spielberg, a film-maker who takes his responsibi lities as moral educator seriously, are promising yet ultimately disappoint ing.