The Role and Limit of Teachers in Moral Education: From the Perspective of Kantian Pedagogy

There exists a dilemma between freedom as a goal and coercion as a means in Moral education, and there is a dispute about whether moral education is necessary. Examining the role of teachers in Moral education provides a solution to this dilemma. On the one hand, teachers provide moral examples for students by improving their own moral cultivation; On the other hand, students are guided to understand moral purity and develop their firm character. The teacher functions like "a ladder", facilitating the student's moral development yet incapable of substituting for the student in achieving moral perfection. Moral education constitutes a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for students to perfect their autonomous moral personality. Consequently, teachers bear the obligation of quasi-perfecting the student's freedom. Therefore, the role of the teacher in moral education should be neither underestimated nor overestimated.