Mazur S. Development of the value of adolescents’ moral autonomy in the context of public organizations

Moral autonomy is a fundamental characteristic of the individual that defines their ability to act based on internal convictions and to take responsibility for their own actions. A pressing pedagogical issue today is the creation of conditions for the value-based awareness of moral autonomy in out-of-school environments. Civil society organizations serve as effective spaces for fostering adolescents' independence, responsibility, and ethical self-awareness. The purpose of the dissertation is the theoretical justification, development, and experimental verification of a methodology for forming the value of moral autonomy among adolescents within civil society organizations. In achieving this aim, the following tasks were accomplished: the essence and structure of adolescents' moral autonomy were defined; the educational potential of civil organizations was investigated; pedagogical conditions for the formation of the value of moral autonomy were developed and tested; and an SGE-rating diagnostic model was created (covering social, civic, and environmental autonomy). The object of the research is the process of forming adolescents’ moral autonomy. The subject of the study is the pedagogical conditions and methodology for shaping the value of adolescents’ moral autonomy within the activities of civil society organizations. The research was conducted on the basis of secondary schools and civic organizations in cities such as Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and Balta. The formative experiment involved 164 adolescents in the experimental group and 176 in the control group. The scientific novelty of the results lies in the fact that, for the first time: the essence and structure of adolescents' moral autonomy were defined using a systemic approach; a holistic set of characteristics of moral actions based on personal autonomy was summarized; a methodology for forming the value of adolescents’ moral autonomy within civil society organizations was developed and experimentally tested; the educational potential of civil society organizations and leaders of out-of-school social communities in forming adolescents’ moral autonomy was identified; the specific features of the process of forming moral autonomy among adolescents in civil organizations were revealed; the concept of "the value of adolescents’ moral autonomy" was clarified; the content, forms, and methods of forming the value of adolescents’ moral autonomy within civil society organizations were further developed; pedagogical theories of creativity were enriched. As a result of the dissertation research, it was established that the effective formation of the value of moral autonomy in adolescence is possible when young people are involved in active participation in civil society organizations that provide an environment for moral choice, self-realization, reflection, and social interaction. The findings can be used in the practical work of civil organizations, in the development of civic education programs, in educational processes in secondary and higher pedagogical institutions, and in the activities of volunteer and educational initiatives with a democratic focus.