Moral Education For Sustainable Development: Comparison Of University .

Sustainability 2020, 12, 30143 of 20While research has attempted in recent years to comprehend the role of China and Pakistan on theAsian stage [21–23], very few bodies of research have been conducted in the field of moral educationand its integration with EFL and Islamic studies to achieve the goal of sustainability. Moreover, studieson moral development and value formation were found from the western perspective, while very fewstudies were carried out on the perspectives of the east. Eastern societies and their moral educationsystems face real moral issues such as depression, poor quality education systems, personality disorders,lack of moral awareness, and weak moral will [24]. In this regard, the findings of the previous studiescould be rebutted or reaffirmed and the current scenario of teaching values, morals, or ethics in Pakistanand China could be assessed for bringing reforms in the subject of EFL and Islamic Studies.This study aimed to bridge the existing gap of teachers’ effective role towards sustainable moraleducation with the comparison of classroom teaching and the views of the university teachers toexplore the heterogeneity among the teachers from two different countries. For this purpose, classroomobservations and interviews were conducted. EFL classrooms were selected for observation fromChina. The reason for selecting EFL classrooms was first due to the language barrier, as the researcherwas not a Chinese native speaker. Second, educators and experts of linguistics have expanded theirinterest beyond the acquisition of language and linguistic capability to concentrate on the moraldimension of language instruction [19,20,25,26]. Balciunaitiene et al. [27] contended that the studentsexamined specific topics, addressed concerns, and shared the personal experiences and emotions ofsustainable development in the foreign language class. EFL develops basic communication skills withan emphasis on developing competence in sustainability. It has been mentioned above, that accordingto the education system of Pakistan, the sustainable development in Islamic ideology is to fulfil allhuman needs in all generations, including man’s duties to himself, his fellow human beings, andGod [13], which is why Islamic Studies classrooms were observed in Pakistan.The rest of the paper is organized as follows: background, traditional and constructive approach,and concepts of moral education in Pakistan and China are described in Section 2. Materials andmethods, the purpose of the study, research design, and participants’ profiles are presented inSection 3. Results, analysis of classroom observation, interviews and ANOVA are described in Section 4.Discussion on results is presented in Section 5. Finally, the conclusion of the research is given inSection 6.2. Background2.1. Traditional and Constructivist Approaches to Moral EducationThe two most widely discussed approaches in the literature regarding moral education are usuallyopposite to each other [28,29], named traditional [30] and constructivist approaches [31]. The traditionalapproach stresses the utilization of reward and punishment [30]. It emphasizes the transmission ofmoral values from older to younger or generation to generation through moral education, character, orvalue education [32]. The purpose of the traditional approach is to teach the students in a way thatthey could use to adopt a good character and values, obey the law of the state, and become role modelsfor others. The values, such as honesty, hard work, kindness, patriotism, and sense of responsibility,are important to become a morally strong person [33]. The traditional approach mainly relies onconservative strategies, due to which some contemporary models of moral education are based on theconstructivist, or progressive, approach.In contrast, the constructivist, or progressive, view was promoted by Jean Piaget and LawrenceKohlberg [31]. The term moral education has been strongly associated with this approach. The objectiveof moral education according to this approach was to develop cognition in children and adolescentsin an educational environment. Kohlberg described six levels of cognitive moral development inhis theory, which was the sequenced development of a sense of fairness and justice. This approachdepends on moral reasoning, moral judgment, participation in solving different problems, and decisionmaking [31,34,35].

Sustainability 2020, 12, 30144 of 202.2. Concept of Moral Education in Pakistan and ChinaShafiqua Haq [14] described how moral education in Pakistan mainly builds upon the teachingsof religion, and societal and cultural norms. The responsibility of the teacher is to encourage thepupils to understand and adopt the morality for the well-being of themselves, society, and the world atlarge. The moral education system in Pakistan emphasizes the teachings of the Quran, which holdswisdom for the people of all times, with no demand of blind following; rather the encouragement ofinquiry, rationality, observation, and intellectuality through experimentation and exploration. The HolyProphet Muhammad (PBUH) is a role model and source of inspiration for Muslims, his teachings, in theform of Hadith and Sunnah, are another source of moral education in Pakistan. The interpretationsof the Quran and Sunnah by Muslim philosophers like Imam Ghazali and Imam Saadi are alsoconsidered a source of moral education in Pakistan. They accentuated the searching of knowledge forthe development of a good human being. All the educational policies of Pakistan described the termmoral education in the light of Islamic teachings, which is to promote the obedience of law and loyaltytowards Islam and Pakistan.There are two goals of moral education in China. The first is to fulfill the social needs of thestudents by the application of concepts such as patriotism and encouragement to serve the country,the people, and the society at large. The second goal of moral education is to address the needs ofthe students for their personality development and prosperity. Hu [36] revealed in his research thatin China, socialist values, such as family unity, harmony, prosperity, and honesty, are consideredimportant while teaching in the classroom. Due to political autarchy, government schools, colleges,and universities also promote political ideology. At university level, the moral education curriculumstresses Marxism, Mao Zedong ideology, and Deng Xiaoping theory. Students are taught traditionalChinese values such as self-sacrifice, patriotism, collectivism, honesty, and loyalty.3. Materials and Methods3.1. Purpose of the StudyThe purpose of the study was to compare the beliefs and the role of the teachers regarding theaim of moral education for sustainability in China and Pakistan. The study raised three questionsconcerning the views of teachers and the practice of teaching morals in the classroom. It was importantto explore the answers of these questions to solve the societal and ethical issues such as globalization,moral judgment, character education, and citizens’ participation. There are few instances that haveopened the door of discussion on ethical decline that has not only affected the moral values in presenttimes but also hampered the sustainable growth of morality. In Pakistan, the most recent incidenttook place when lawyers attacked a hospital [37], whereas in China, a company was accused of sellingsubstandard, risky, and dangerous immunizations to vaccinate over a quarter of a million children [38].Therefore, teachers’ perceptions and beliefs about the aim of moral education and the areas that arenecessary to be learnt by the students are significant because teachers play a vital role in the moraldevelopment of the students. Additionally, this research may contribute to the global, and particularlyAsian, literature on university teachers’ professionalism in terms of moral transformers. It is alsolucrative for political leaders, policymakers, higher education institutions, curriculum developers, andeducators to formulate better plans and curriculum reforms to understand the ideas and patterns ofteachers’ practices in the classroom to improve the moral education system in China and Pakistan.According to the purpose, the following research questions were explored: What is the concept of moral education and what do teachers think about their practices of moraleducation for sustainable development?What values teachers consider necessary to teach and what methods they usually apply to teachmoral education for sustainable development?

Sustainability 2020, 12, 3014 5 of 20What do the teachers consider as the basis for their choices to select the methods in teaching moraleducation for sustainable development?3.2. Research HypothesesBased on the theoretical design of the study, a set of hypotheses was formulated to examinethrough empirical data, as follows:Hypothesis 1. There is no significant difference between the perception of Pakistani and Chinese teachersregarding the concept of moral education for sustainability.Hypothesis 2. There is no significant difference between the methods that Pakistani and Chinese teachers use inthe classroom for sustainable development.3.3. Research DesignThis study adopted a mixed-method approach to draw conclusions. The qualitative analysis ofthe study used Miles, Huberman, and Saldana’s interactive model, mentioned in Figure 1. This modelwas used in numerous studies to conduct a qualitative data analysis [39]. It attempts to provide asystemic, rigorous, and accountable framework for qualitative inquiry. It consists of four components,beginning from data collection and concluding by drawing results. According to the model, after thecollection of data, the data are reduced to make them simplified by noting down important informationrelated to the research problem. In the next stage, data are presented in the form of tables and graphs,and in the end, conclusions are drawn. This model was suitable for the study as it specified the richinformation collected by class observations and interviews.Figure 1. Interactive Model: Component of Analysis.Miles et al. [40].Source: Qualitative Data Analysis byTwelve teachers of EFL and Islamic Studies were selected for classroom observation and interviews.An unstructured observation tool and interview questionnaire was developed. The duration of eachclass observation was 80 min, during which, teaching practices of these teachers were closely examinedand their classroom practices were noted down. The duration of interview of each participant was15 to 25 min. Classroom observation and interviews were conducted by the researcher personally.The interviews were audio-recorded. Data were coded line by line by using an interactive researchmodel. Themes and concepts were developed to draw conclusions.The quantitative analysis of the study was performed using one-way ANOVA and t-test. The datafor analysis were gathered using a questionnaire (Appendix A). Five percent of the sample was selectedfor pilot testing and the reliability of the questionnaire was tested through SPSS version 20. Cronbach’salpha was calculated, which was r 0.81. For validation, the opinion of the experts of EFL and IslamicStudies were taken. Initially, 23 items were developed, but after experts’ feedback, 4 items were

Sustainability 2020, 12, 30146 of 20omitted. The questionnaire was distributed among 150 Chinese and 150 Pakistani teachers. However,the total amount of responses received was 239. According to the literature, there are the followingkinds of t-test available: (1) single t-test, (2) independent t-test, and (3) paired t-test.Since the information in this research was acquired from two independent groups, the independentt-test was selected for this study. One-way ANOVA was an add-on of the t-test, which differentiatedthe sample means of the groups and depicted whether or not the numbers of groups differ numericallyacross the groups. The present article used ANOVA, which compared the moral education existenceand methodology between Chinese and Pakistani teachers.3.4. Participants’ ProfileIn the present study, tertiary teachers were selected as a sample from two countries China andPakistan. For a quantitative analysis, 300 teachers from both countries were selected, while forqualitative analysis, the unstructured interviews were conducted from 12 teachers. The teachers wererandomly selected from the population of 40 teachers who were teaching at Shanghai University, Chinaand International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. The Pakistani sample consisted of 6 teachers(3 males and 3 females). The teachers were teaching the Islamic Studies subject to undergraduatestudents in International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Chinese sample consisted of 6teachers (3 males and 3 females) from Shanghai University. Teachers from the faculty of EFL wereselected with the following considerations:1.2.The common teaching language between Pakistan and China is English. In Pakistan, all subjectsare taught in English, whereas in China only faculty of English has English language competency.Therefore, the faculty of EFL was the only option for selection of participants.Chinese universities have well-defined criteria for induction of their faculty according toage, qualification, and experience. Therefore, these factors have already been embeddedin teachers’ selection.The respondents’ profile was developed in Table 1, due to the confidentiality of data, the researcherassigned numbers to participantsTable 1. Respondents’ articipant 1Participant 2Participant 3Participant 4Participant 5Participant 6Participant 7Participant 8Participant 9Participant 10Participant 11Participant Phil. Islamic StudiesM.Phil. Islamic StudiesPhD Islamic StudiesM.Phil. ArabicPhD Islamic StudiesM.Phil. Islamic StudiesPhD EFLPhD EFLPhD EFLPhD EFLPhD EFLPhD aleFemaleMale4. Results4.1. Analysis of Observations and InterviewsIn the presentation of results, the researcher focused on themes that were based on classroomobservations and interviews. The results showed that teachers from both countries used traditionalmethods to teach morals in the classroom. They did not consult the theoretical basis and empiricalresearch to enhance their teaching skills. Moreover, they were found to be confused in their views

Sustainability 2020, 12, 30147 of 20when asked about the aim of moral education, what methods they used, and what basis they had inselecting methods for teaching morals for sustainable development.The researcher used an interactive model to collect data from university teachers and dividedthem into seven themes based on the objectives of the study. The themes are presented in Figure 2.These themes were also considered in developing the survey questionnaire (Appendix A). The firstfour dominant themes were observed during class observation, while three themes were focused onwhen teachers were interviewed. The researcher personally checked the adequacy of the themes toensure internal validity with the assistance of experts in the field of EFL and Islamic Studies, whoreviewed them to avoid the researcher’s bias and improved the reliability of the themes [40].Figure 2. Themes of Observation and Interview.4.2. Classroom Observation AnalysisClassroom observation is often used to assess the standard of teaching [41] and teaching–learningprocess, including classroom procedures, teaching practices, methodology, strategy, andteacher–student relationship [42,43]. It is one of the considerable teacher assessment techniquesbecause it provides abundant information about the actual classroom performance of the teachers,which can later be used for summative and formative assessment [44,45]. In this section, four themesrelated to classroom observation were discussed in detail. The notes were taken when teachers wereteaching in the classroom and their practices of teaching moral education were analyzed critically bythe observer.4.2.1. Values FocusedIn China, a variety of topics were discussed in the classroom that could be justified as it was anEFL classroom. The values that assimilated with lessons were sympathy, responsibility, unity, success,courtesy, self-esteem, rationale, logics, victory, achievement, patriotism, leadership, harmony, andpeace. During the lecture, teachers stressed on cultural and political values, while universal values wereless identified. Here is an example of one of the classroom lectures delivered by the male participant:

Sustainability 2020, 12, 30148 of 20Teacher: Today we will discuss the Rhetorical Perspective on Human Action. A basic conceptof identity will be discussed how a man should be? A man, who must share the knowledge,a man with good morals, friendly with others, shows sympathy and intelligence. In thisregard, three appeals will be thoroughly learnt. The first is the appeal to ethos; second, theappeal to pathos and the last one is the appeal to logos (then used the board and drew atriangle to explain three appeals). Ethos or the ethical appeal means to convince others byyour personality and character (linked it with a good moral human) whereas pathos or theemotional appeal means to convince people by appealing their emotions (gave the exampleof sympathy and empathy). Try to feel the emotions of people and the appeal to logos meanpersuade others by using logics (linked it with unity and gave the example of birds that flyin a flock).In Pakistan, most of the teachers were promoting religious values and emphasis was placed on thecultivation of spiritual life. According to the teachers, Islam was the religion that promoted peaceinstead of violence. The values identified during observations were peace, charity, equality, honesty,sacrifice, devotion, patience, rationality, wisdom, modesty, obedience, mercy, and pious. Here is anexample of one of the female teachers:Teacher: Today the topic we are going to discuss in the class is “The System of Moralityin Islam” (wrote the topic on the board). There are three major categories of men: (1) theone who is good by nature, (2) those who are incorrigible, (3) those who come betweenboth categories 1 and 2 are called intermediary groups. Most of the humans are laid underthe third category, the other 2 categories are considered extreme categories and very fewindividuals are found. The very first category humans are like angels and they don’t requireany direction to do good actions. They follow the principles of God Almighty, believe insacrifice, devotion, charity and have a good soul by birth. The second category needs greatattention and they must be controlled by doing evil. They are extremists by nature and readyto harm themselves as well as others. The third category is large in number and they requiredall time direction to prevent evil and do good actions.Further, she presented examples of different souls, like a noble soul, intelligent soul, ordinary spirit,and obtuse soul. Thus, the part that was focused on was becoming a good human being who offerssacrifices and devotion to help other members of society.4.2.2. Values and Students’ Cognitive LevelMost of the values were embedded appropriately within lectures in China and Pakistan. Chineseteachers’ stress was on success, achievement, patriotism, unity, and leadership that supported theircultural and political ideology. Pakistani teachers focused on spirituality, sacrifice, and obedience ofdivine laws. As the university students were prepared to step in practical life, these moral values werequite suitable to their cognitive level. However, some valuable moral traits were neglected too in theirteachings, such as honesty, care, fairness, and respect for others in China, while in Pakistan they werethe sense of responsibility, attaining knowledge, use of logic, and leadership.4.2.3. Promoting Classroom DiscussionIn Pakistani classrooms, most of the teaching methodology was the lecture method, in whichteachers were reading and explaining text. No use of multimedia was observed in the classroom.Students were just passive listeners. Although a few students gave their routine presentations inthe classroom, which indicated their good confidence level, open classroom discussion was lacking.In China, teachers promoted discussions and group work. However, the discussions were mostlyfocused on recalling the content instead of multidimensional ideas. Generally students were foundto be hesitant in sharing their opinion. Most of the boys were less interested in the lecture and were

Sustainability 2020, 12, 30149 of 20playing games on laptops or mobile phones. Female students were somehow participating and sharingtheir views, but were not articulate due to the language barrier. All the teachers were using the lecturemethod and multimedia in the classroom, and planned their lesson by keeping a few minutes at theend for a question–answer session. The following is the extract of a discussion on the justificationof war.Teacher: Give the reason to justify war?Another question asked by the teacher was:Teacher: Are terrorists the justification of war for America? Give your opinion.The teacher also showed a slide on multimedia and asked for the comments. The slide had these lines:There is a scene in the TV series “Operation Iron Eagle”: the “Knife” of the railway criminalpolice and the female college students pursuing him take a walk in the middle of the railto say goodbye. The rail behind them crisscrosses. The scene is very beautiful, but itseriously violates the railway safety regulations. Because walking or walking in the middleof the railway track is easy to be knocked down by t

For this purpose, teachers play an important role as moral agents, and students consider the teacher a role model. Therefore, the understanding and beliefs of teachers regarding moral education play a pivotal role in grooming the personality . inculcating religious and ethical education in to the classroom [15]. In this deem, the role of the .