Social and Moral Responsibility

Introduction

Social and moral responsibility is one of the three themes of citizenship education outlined in the Crick Report (1998). The Crick Report states that the development of social and moral responsibility is a pre-requisite of citizenship, in respect of a required understanding of the consequences of one’s actions and the impact of these actions on others. Underpinning this theme is the sense that there needs to be a much clearer focus on developing social and moral responsibility, in terms of respect for the rights of others and the relationship between the individual and the community, in young people. As such, Crick argued that citizenship education requires young people to learn about moral values and to develop their ability to apply these in practice (1998). However, on publication of the report it was suggested that this theme was possibly the most controversial of the three, because while a moral dimension to citizenship education avoids the ‘dry’ civic approach, it also begs the question as to which moral values, in a pluralist society, young people should be learning (Pyke, 2002).

Moral responsibility implies a knowledge and understanding of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and the ability and willingness to behave morally. As such, citizenship education in this area focuses on developing individuals’ ability to act as moral agents in their choices, intentions and actions. Social responsibility suggests that an individual has responsibility to the community or society in terms of choices about behaviour. One aspect of this is legal responsibility i.e. the responsibility of a citizen to act within the law. However, the concept of social responsibility implies a more active role than remaining law-abiding, encompassing the notion that individuals should support and protect their societies’ interests and that they should be more broadly accountable to their communities for their actions.