Ethical Education is defined as education that prepares and encourages students:
- To explore and respect different worldviews and beliefs.
- To identify, question and challenge their personal beliefs and values.
- To consider and reflect on ethical dilemmas and engage in the process of ethical decision-making.
- To develop the ability to critically assess, discuss and act when faced with issues and problems in society.
- To take responsibility for promoting, advocating for and striving towards social justice, equality and inclusion for all.
- To research thinking and reason in order to create their own opinions and ideas, to understand their own self and society they live in, which will help them to find life orientation and ethical values.
With its focus on values propagated by the EU including human dignity, freedom, democracy, justice and rule of law, human rights, solidarity, pluralism, equality and tolerance, Ethical Education has similarities and varying degrees of overlap with:
- Human rights education
- Intercultural education
- Multicultural education
- Civics education
- Citizenship education
- Ethics and Values education – Is Ethics and Values education different from Ethical Education?
- Character education
- Philosophy
- Education for critical thinking
- Education for sustainability
- Religion/ religious studies
Ethical Education seeks to combine the best elements of these fostering knowledge, skills and action in human rights, intercultural competence and moral and spiritual awareness and development.
What matters most in the conception of Ethical Education that informs the LITTLE project is that it is education which prepares students to live in diverse societies and provides them with the knowledge and skills to identify and question their own value system which will enable and empower them to articulate shared values and act in line with these in their everyday lives.
