Respecting Elders as A Moral Virtue: Terminal or Instrumental?

This study examined how the moral value of ‘respecting elders’ was constructed in the interaction between parents and young children between 3 and 5 years of age. The everyday conversations between parent- child dyad were subjected to discourse analysis. The analysis suggested that in the parent–child everyday interaction what on the surface appears to be the selfless moral value of ‘respecting elders’ carried an alternate implied meaning. It seemed that the value of ‘respecting elders’ is contingent on some favours or other gains, rather than being just by virtue of ‘age’. The conclusion drawn from discourse analysis was later also validated by means of semi-structured interview of the parents. In this paper the focus is primarily on the discursive part of the study, nevertheless the data of the interview helps in establishing how parents actually conceptualized the value of ‘respecting elders’.