Pedagogical practices and morality in an institution for transgressor adolescents

The main objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between pedagogical practices adopted in a socioeducational institution in Pernambuco, Brazil, and moral reasonings of agents and adolescents in that institution. This discussion will be based on socio-moral developmental psychology and the Statute of the Child and Adolescent. The research method involved participant observation and interviews with agents and adolescents, concerning their personal evaluation about the institution and their conceptions of law, justice and response to a moral dilemma. Results indicate relationships between the institutional pedagogical practices of supervision, punishment and retribution, and moral conceptions oriented to moral heteronomy in both groups.

Pedagogical practices; morality; transgressor adolescents