Children's Moral Lives

Children’s Moral Lives makes use of case studies, observation, interviews and questionnaires to offer a fascinating, behind-the-scenes view of children’s school lives and the complex moral issues and disputes they routinely negotiate

• The first ethnography of childhood to focus on children’s morality in the peer group
• Case studies shed light on the psychological, social and cultural processes by which children and adults reach starkly different moral judgments of the same situations
• Combines qualitative insights and quantitative data into recommendations for practice

Dr. Ruth Woods is currently a Research Fellow in a multidisciplinary team at the University of Aberdeen, UK, and an Associate of Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. A psychologist by training, Ruth completed her PhD among anthropologists, learning to apply ethnographic methods to psychological questions. Ever since, she has combined quantitative and qualitative methods and analyses in innovative ways to improve our understanding of how children conceive and experience morality, aggression, friendship, and ethnic identity. She has published on these topics in a series of journal articles.