Fostering meaningful education: exploring ethical awareness and ethical literacy in Preschools through qualitative research

This paper presents the initial findings of a qualitative study investigating the relationship between ethics and education in Italian preschool settings. The research employs the methodology of Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) to emphasise the indispensable role of promoting ethical awareness in early childhood education. The preliminary results from the interpretation of intensive interviews with preschool teachers indicate that the structuring of ethically significant educational experiences can be a factor in the growth of ethical awareness. From a theoretical and practical perspective, the study posits that stimulating ethical awareness from early childhood can prevent the rise of an increasingly widespread phenomenon: ethical illiteracy.