Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, ACE Teaching Fellows
Dr. Darcia Narvaez is an adjunct faculty member with the ACE Teaching Fellows. She researches moral development through the lifespan, with a particular focus on early life effects on the neurobiology underpinning moral functioning (triune ethics theory). She has worked on interventions for moral character development, including integrating moral character skill development into academic instruction (integrative ethical education). Narvaez emphasizes “moral complexity” and optimal functioning through virtue development, and the importance of both deliberative and intuitive processes in ethical expertise.
Narvaez has co-authored or co-edited seven books and dozens of articles and chapters. She is editor of the Journal of Moral Education and blogs at Psychology Today (Moral Landscapes). She is a Fellow with the American Psychological Association, and has received awards for her books, Postconventional Moral Thinking (1999), Moral Development, Self and Identity (2004), Handbook of Moral and Character Education (2008), and Self, Identity and Character (2009).
She earned a bachelors in music and Spanish from the University of Northern Colorado and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota.
Degrees
B.A. University of Northern Colorado
M. Div. Luther Northwestern Seminary
Ph.D., Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota
Awards
Fellow, American Psychological Association, Division 3: Experimental; and Division 15: Educational
Book Awards for Postconventional Moral Thinking (1999), Moral Development, Self and Identity (2004), Handbook of Moral and Character Education (2008), Self, Identity and Character (2009)
Publications
Narvaez, D. (2014). Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Narvaez, D., Valentino, K., Fuentes, A., McKenna, J., & Gray, P. (Eds.) (2014). Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution: Culture, Childrearing and Social Wellbeing. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Nucci, L., Narvaez, D., & Krettenauer, T. (Eds.) (2014). Handbook of Moral and Character Education (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Narvaez, D., Panksepp, J., Schore, A., & Gleason, T. (Eds.) (2013). Evolution, Early Experience and Human Development: From Research to Practice and Policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Narvaez, D. (2013). The 99 Percent—Development and socialization within an evolutionary context: Growing up to become “A good and useful human being.” In D. Fry (Ed.), War, Peace and Human Nature: The convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views (pp. 643-672). New York: Oxford University Press.
Lapsley, D., Holter, A., & Narvaez, D. (2013). Teaching for Character: Three Strategies for Teacher Education. In M. Sanger & R. Osgulthorpe (Eds.), The Moral Work of Teaching: Preparing and Supporting Practitioners. New York: Teachers College Press.
Narvaez, D. (2012). Moral neuroeducation from early life through the lifespan. Neuroethics, 5(2), 145-157. doi:10.1007/s12152-011-9117-5
Narvaez, D. (2010). Building a sustaining classroom climate for purposeful ethical citizenship. In T. Lovat and R. Toomey (Eds.), International Research Handbook of Values Education and Student Wellbeing (pp. 659-674) New York: Springer Publishing Co.
Narvaez, D. (2010). Moral complexity: The fatal attraction of truthiness and the importance of mature moral functioning.Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(2), 163-181.
Narvaez, D. (2010). The emotional foundations of high moral intelligence. In B. Latzko & T. Malti (Eds.). Children’s Moral Emotions and Moral Cognition: Developmental and Educational Perspectives, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 129, 77-94. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Narvaez, D. (2010). Building a sustaining classroom climate for purposeful ethical citizenship. In T. Lovat and R. Toomey (Eds.), International Research Handbook of Values Education and Student Wellbeing (pp. 659-674) New York: Springer Publishing Co.
Narvaez, D. (2010). Moral complexity: The fatal attraction of truthiness and the importance of mature moral functioning.Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(2), 163-181.
Narvaez, D. (2010). The emotional foundations of high moral intelligence. In B. Latzko & T. Malti (Eds.). Children’s Moral Emotions and Moral Cognition: Developmental and Educational Perspectives, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 129, 77-94. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Narvaez, D. & Lapsley, D. K. (2008). Teaching moral character: Two alternatives for teacher educators. Teacher Educator, 43(2), 156-172.
Narvaez, D. (2007). How cognitive and neurobiological sciences inform values education for creatures like us. In D. Aspin & J. Chapman (Eds.), Values Education and Lifelong Learning: Philosophy, Policy, Practices (pp. 127-159). Springer Press International.
Lapsley, D. K. & Narvaez, D. (2006). Character education. In Vol. 4 (A. Renninger & I. Siegel, volume Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology (W. Damon & R. Lerner, Series Eds.) (pp. 248-296). New York: Wiley.