The Link Between Teacher Moral Values and Early Literacy Development: Examining Reading Outcomes in Small-Group Instruction

Abstract

This study examined whether tutors’ moral values were associated with students’ reading development in structured small-group tutoring for kindergarten, first-, and second-grade students. Grounded in the theory of morality-as-cooperation, the study tested associations between tutors’ overall morality, domain-specific moral values, and the broader dimensions of Relevance and Judgment with students’ word reading, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension, as well as moderation by students’ initial reading proficiency. Data were drawn from an afterschool tutoring program implementing a highly structured, scripted literacy intervention. Tutor morality was measured using the Morality-as-Cooperation Questionnaire. Multilevel models accounted for students nested within tutors and controlled for pretest performance and student demographics. Across outcomes, pretest reading performance consistently predicted spring reading outcomes. In contrast, analyses did not provide evidence that tutors’ moral values, whether examined overall, at the domain-specific level, or as Relevance and Judgment, were associated with any reading outcome after correction for multiple comparisons. No moderation by initial reading proficiency was observed, and findings were consistent across model specifications. Overall, results suggest that within brief, highly structured small-group tutoring, tutors’ self-reported moral values were not detectably associated with early literacy outcomes. These findings highlight the dominant role of prior reading skill and the importance of instructional context.