Researchers have studied academic orientation—students’ valuing of and commitment to education—as in part a function of a cultural fit between students’ cultural capital, competencies, identity, and the institutional culture of the education system. Recent research on students’ aspirations and commitment highlights the moral undertones of such cultural fit. Scholars have identified the perceived moral connotations of becoming “an educated person” and illustrated how students’ academic orientation may be intertwined with the unique moral culture of the education system. Neoinstitutional scholars have examined modern education systems’ emphasis on an individualizing type of moral culture, that is, an institutional moral culture emphasizing individual autonomy, rights, and achievement over traditional mores, knowledge, and social hierarchies. Scholars have yet to bridge these streams of research by examining the link between students’ personal moral culture and the institutional moral culture of education systems. In this study, we consider whether students whose moral orientation matches the individualizing moral culture of education systems are more academically oriented. We conceptualize this link as moral fit, and we use moral foundations theory to identify students’ personal moral culture. Analysis of a unique sample of students drawn from all secondary schools in Iceland (N = 10,525) shows (1) individualizing moral intuitions (those that emphasize the individual as the basic moral unit) are associated with a greater academic orientation, net of parental involvement, cultural capital, and other important controls, and (2) this association is only lightly moderated by differences in the school structure.

研究人员研究了学术取向——学生对教育的重视和承诺——部分是文化契合的功能学生的文化资本、能力、身份和教育系统的制度文化之间的关系。最近对学生抱负和承诺的研究突出了这种文化契合的道德底蕴。学者们已经确定了成为“受过教育的人”的道德内涵，并说明了学生的学术取向如何与教育系统独特的道德文化交织在一起。新制度学者研究了现代教育系统对个体化道德文化的强调，即强调个体自主权、权利和成就高于传统习俗、知识和社会等级的制度道德文化。学者们尚未通过检验学生的个人道德文化与教育系统的制度道德文化之间的联系来弥合这些研究流。在这项研究中，我们考虑了道德取向与教育系统的个性化道德文化相匹配的学生是否更有学术取向。我们将此链接概念化为道德契合，我们用道德基础理论来识别学生的个人道德文化。对来自冰岛所有中学 (N = 10,525) 的独特学生样本的分析表明 (1) 个性化的道德直觉（强调个人作为基本道德单位的那些）与更大的学业倾向相关，不包括父母参与、文化资本和其他重要的控制因素，以及 (2) 这种关联仅受到学校结构差异的轻微调节。