Ein leið til að sinna mannkostamenntun er að lesa bókmenntir og greina og ræða
mannkosti í þeim með nemendum. Í þessari grein er fjallað um forsendur þess að nota
Íslendingasögur til mannkostamenntunar með nemendum á unglingsaldri. Rætt er
um mikilvægi dygða fyrir mannkostamenntun, áherslu hennar á siðferðilegar dygðir
og almenn tengsl dygða og siðferðis. Þá er fjallað um þær aðstæður í bókmenntum
þar sem dygðir (eða lestir) birtast en þær eru hér kallaðar dygðaaðstæður. Rökstutt
er að ekki sé erfitt að finna slíkar aðstæður í Íslendingasögum. Í ljósi tengslanna á
milli dygða og siðferðis er jafnframt fjallað um siðferði Íslendingasagna og hvernig
fræðileg umræða um það efni getur haft áhrif á mannkostamenntun. Auk þess er velt
upp þeirri spurningu hvort það siðferði sem viðgekkst á tímum Íslendingasagnanna
sé sama siðferðið og er viðtekið nú til dags. Stigskipt þroskalíkan Gilligan er notað
til að staðsetja siðferðilegan veruleika Íslendingasagna gagnvart nútímasiðferði. Með
hjálp þroskalíkansins má einnig bregðast betur við þeirri spurningu hvort hægt sé að
nota sögu þar sem siðferði persóna er ef til vill ekki til fyrirmyndar til að efla siðferði
nemenda. Með því að nota þroskalíkanið er samtímis hægt að skoða einkenni þeirrar
siðferðilegu hugsunar sem stefna má að í mannkostamenntun með unglingum.
One possible approach to character education is through literature. The teacher looks
for virtues in stories with her students and then these virtues are discussed to improve
the students’ understanding of virtue concepts and hopefully make them more aware
of virtues in their own lives. In preparation for a research project where one of the
Icelandic sagas, Laxdæla saga, was taught in this way to teenagers, some of the main
conditions of the teaching had to be summarized. This article discusses the main
themes that come into play here and puts the teaching of Icelandic sagas into the
context of character education.
The article discusses the basic assumptions of character education that are important
here; the connection between virtues and ethics, the concept of a virtue situation,
research on ethics in the Icelandic sagas, whether ethics in the sagas means the same as
in modernity, whether the sagas are suitable material for character education, whether
the ethical reality found in them is different from ours, and, finally, what kind of
moral thinking could be the aim of character education.
The kind of character education used as the foundation for the research project
is Aristotelian in nature as interpreted by the members of The Jubilee Centre for
Character & Virtues at the University of Birmingham (cf. Kristján Kristjánsson, 2015).
The discussion of character education deals with the importance it places on virtue,
its emphasis on moral virtue and the general connection of virtues and ethics. It is
suggested that this kind of character education may embrace a broader understanding
of moral virtue than is commonly accepted. It is, however, argued that this only has
a minor, if any, effect on how character education is practised.
The concept of a virtue situation is introduced. This refers to a situation, in which
a character in a story finds herself, which is well suited to evaluating the character’s
virtues. This may be a relatively mundane situation or one which is charged with
moral tension. It is argued, furthermore, that such situations are easily found in the
Icelandic sagas, which makes it a relatively simple task to discuss virtuous action in
the context of the sagas.
The main ideas scholars have had about ethics in the saga literature are introduced.
This is important for two reasons. Firstly, virtues are strongly connected to ethical
views. Since most of the virtues covered in character education are moral virtues,
much can be learnt about a character’s opinions of virtues from her ethical stance.
Secondly, it would appear that the kind of ethics that dominates the saga world differs
from the ethics prevalent in the modern Western world. When discussing why the
characters in the sagas behaved in the way they do it helps to have an understanding
of the differences in values between them and us.
To throw light on the difference between saga ethics and modern ethics, Gilligan’s
(1993) model of moral development is used. In this context some criticisms of Kohlberg
and Gilligan are discussed and it is explained that neither the content of Gilligan’s nor
Kohlberg’s model is used here, but rather the basic point of view that each stage of
development entails. Thus we can gain a rough understanding of how characters in
the sagas generally think differently about ethical matters than people today.
The developmental model further helps us answer the question as to whether the
sagas are suitable material for character education, given that the ethical reality found
in them is different from ours, as well as showing us what kind of moral thinking
could be the aim of character education.
