Character education in schools has been high on the UK political agenda for the last few years. The government has invested millions in grants to support character education projects and declared its intention to make Britain a global leader in teaching character and resilience. But the policy has many critics: some question whether schools should be involved in the formation of character at all; others worry that the traits schools are being asked to cultivate (...) are excessively competitive or military. In this pamphlet Randall Curren sets out a robust defence of character education. He welcomes the political support it presently enjoys, but contends that greater clarity about the nature, benefits and acquisition of good character is essential. In particular, he argues that too narrow a focus on traits like perseverance and resilience is a serious mistake: these traits are only virtues when they are part of a wider set of moral and intellectual qualities, and when their exercise is guided by good judgment. Curren offers us a compelling and coherent account of what good character is and how it might be cultivated in schools. He explains why schools must be needs-supporting environments that provide students with opportunities to engage in rewarding activity, and why cultivating good character implies promoting the ‘fundamental British values’ of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance. His groundbreaking pamphlet promises to expand the scope and strengthen the foundations of character education in British schools, and should go a long way towards allaying the fears of its detractors. (shrink)

The need for character education for those in public leadership is of unquestionable importance. Professor Christoph Stückelberger has recently argued that ‘structural ethics’ have their merits, and that ‘there are no virtuous institutions, there are only virtuous people’. Stückelberger calls for the cultivation of virtues, especially the virtue of integrity. In recent decades, character education has received new attention. Those who call for character education most often draw from Greek traditions, especially from Aristotle. This (...) article will explore a different source for the discussion of virtues and character. About 80 years ago, the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber proposed character education, based on what he called ‘Hebrew humanism’, as the foundation of nation-building. I will explore the continuing relevance of Buber’s view of character and character formation, taking his famous Tel Aviv speech on ‘The Education of Character’ of 1939 as a point of departure. (shrink)

This book provides a reconstruction of Aristotelian character education, shedding new light on what moral character really is, and how it can be highlighted, measured, nurtured and taught in current schooling. Arguing that many recent approaches to character education understand character in exclusively amoral, instrumentalist terms, Kristjánsson proposes a coherent, plausible and up-to-date concept, retaining the overall structure of Aristotelian character education. After discussing and debunking popular myths about Aristotelian character (...) class='Hi'>education, subsequent chapters focus on the practical ramifications and methodologies of character education. These include measuring virtue and morality, asking whether Aristotelian character education can salvage the effects of bad upbringing, and considering implications for teacher training and classroom practice. The book rejuvenates time-honoured principles of the development of virtues in young people, at a time when 'character' features prominently in educational agendas and parental concerns over school education systems. Offering an interdisciplinary perspective which draws from the disciplines of education, psychology, philosophy and sociology, this book will appeal to researchers, academics and students wanting a greater insight into character education. (shrink)

This paper discusses the character education in Kitab Adab al-‘Alimwa al-Muta’allim, written by one of the founders of largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama, Kyai Hasyim Asy’ari as a form of social piety. This book has provided a comprehensive and constructive way of character education which integrates Islamic values with various religious texts. Character education which includes and complements a broad range of educational approaches such as social-emotional learning and civic education shares (...) a commitment to help people become responsible and contributive citizens. Meanwhile, pesantren have taught and built strong characters of the santri in the forms of rabbaniyah, insaniyah, wasathiyyah and waqi’iyyah characters. Therefore, pesantren -based character education the book described is a key element to nurture Muslims’ good habits. This paper shows that the book can be an answer for Indonesia’s contemporary multi-dimensional crises, such as radicalism and terrorism. (shrink)

Character education values are discovered in cultural activities and human interactions with God, others and themselves. This study aims to explore and describe the value of character education in the peraq api of Sasak community in Lombok. This article uses a qualitative research approach. The data collection techniques include observation, interviews and documentation. The data analysis used triangulation with the stages of identifying interview material, classifying, coding, taking emic and hermeneutical approaches. The results of the study (...) elucidate that the procedures and stages of the ritual begin from experimentation, which is considered and believed to have magical powers but does not conflict with religious values. The stages that are passed in carrying out the ritual include activities to prepare materials, process materials, fumigation, carry out rituals and give baby names. The character values comprised in the peraq api tradition are religious, ethical, responsible and environmental care character.Contribution: This research contributes to maintaining the values of character education in the Sasak society. (shrink)

Neo-Aristotelian forms of character education often draw on literary sources as materials, although rarely poetry. This article offers retrospective reflections on a poetry-based character-education intervention, conducted in an Icelandic secondary-school setting. Having run into practical difficulties during the implementation phase, the challenges of implementation were reflected upon through consultation with ten subject experts who shared their views about the enablers and barriers encountered when running such an intervention. The interviews yielded a rich data set, which often (...) took interviewees beyond the boundaries of a poetry-based curricular context to focus on more general conditions for effective, character-inspiring school-work. Through thematic analysis, four themes were identified: freedom, time, creativity, and wonderment. Of these four, creativity had been identified in advance as an interview theme, meaning that the researchers expected to find it. The remaining three provide an insight into how, according to the interviewees, the ideal Icelandic school system should be designed. The theme of freedom addresses both negative and positive aspects of the current state of affairs, while the theme of time mostly reflects negative aspects of the Icelandic curriculum. The theme of wonderment has solely positive connotations in the minds of interviewees, and is the core of this analysis because it seems to hold the key to the question: what factors would enable an effective intervention of the sort under scrutiny here? This theme is analysed in detail, and some specific and general educational implications are elicited. (shrink)

Character education in schools in England is flourishing. I give many examples of the enthusiasm for it as well as drawing attention to the UK government's new ambivalence towards it. Character education seems largely impervious to the many criticisms to which it has been subjected. I touch on these only briefly as my focus is on a criticism that has received little coverage. This is because the virtues on offer are unstable. They are best understood as (...) sites on which we contest our understanding of what it is to be a good person rather than reach conclusive answers. There is support for this argument in Aristotle, notwithstanding its many oddities and those of some modern uses of his conception of the virtues. The proliferation of the virtues in the practice and theory of education today is, I suggest, a sign of weakness and not of strength, while the very instability of the virtues demands that they be continually discussed and debated. This places them at the heart of any vision of education worth having. (shrink)

인간에게 교육이 문제시 될 수밖에 없는 것은 인간의 자연적 욕구 때문이다. 인간의 자 연적 욕구가 인간으로 하여금 알고도 행하지 않게 하는 요인이기에 교육은 인간에게 매우 중요한 문제이다. 하지만 우리는 시대적 요구에 따라 상당 기간 인성교육을 실시해왔음에 도 그 교육적 효과를 제대로 보이지 못했다. 이런 맥락에서 볼 때, 인간 인식 활동과 관련 하여 자신의 이성적 능력에 대해서 스스로 엄정하게 비판하고, 이를 통해 도덕의 세계로 나아가는 칸트의 철학은 우리의 인성교육에 있어서 매우 중요하다. 사실 칸트는 순수이 성비판 에서 인간의 인식 활동과 관련하여 이론이성의 (...) 한계를 명확히 하고자 하였으며, 이를 통해 실천이성의 길로 나아가고자 하였다. 이는 소크라테스가 문답법을 통하여 아포 리아에 이름으로써 무지(無知)를 자각하게 하는 길이기도 하다. 인간에게 무지의 자각은 단순한 자신의 인식의 한계만을 알려주는 것이 아니라 양심의 길로 향하도록 만든다. 본 연구는, 소크라테스의 문답법에 주목한 칸트의 입장과 더불어, 답을 찾는 교육이 아니라 질문하는 교육을 통한 인성교육이 학생들로 하여금 단지 무엇이 옳고 그른지를 확인하는 차원에 머무르지 않고 오히려 인간이 극복할 수 없는 유한성의 자각과 양심에 어떻게 도 달할 수 있는지를 확인하고자 한다. 나아가 마음과 마음의 소통을 위한 문답식의 교육적 접근이 어떻게 도덕적 실천과 연계될 수 있는지에 대해서도 살펴볼 것이다. (shrink)

Having an agreed-upon definition of character education would be useful for both researchers and practitioners in the field. However, even experts in character education disagree on how they would define it. We attempted to achieve greater conceptual clarity on this issue through a prototype analysis in which the features perceived as most central to character education were identified. In Study 1 (N = 77), we asked character education experts to enumerate features of (...) character education. Based on these lists, we identified 30 features. In Study 2 (N = 101), experts assessed which features were central to character education through a categorization task. In Study 3 (N = 166), we assessed the extent of centrality using scalar items. We conclude by offering practical advice for the development of future character education studies and programs rooted in what is deemed central to such programs. (shrink)

In response to a growing perception that America's youth lack the necessary values to grow and develop into adulthood in a socially healthy manner, character education has emerged as a rapidly growing proactive approach that serves to develop good character among young people. The authors examine several of the virtues thought to underlie good character from Character Counts!, a popular character education program, and emphasize the cultural complexities involved when promoting character (...) class='Hi'>education in a pluralistic society. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

Many teachers want to contribute to children's moral development, but this desire has not always resulted in a profound grasp of what 'moral education' really means, why it would be desirable and how it can best be achieved. This book confronts these questions by examining what Aristotelian virtue ethics can illuminate about moral education. At the same time, it evaluates whether Aristotelian theory can still be useful for contemporary educational practice. The argument culminates in a morally justified and (...) psychologically realistic account of how virtue can best be taught in schools. The approach, called 'character education', sees moral education not as enforcing rules or transferring values in separate subjects. Instead, it encourages teachers to be a 'morally exemplary teacher', which is revealed through all kinds of small decisions and emotional reactions. This philosophical essay takes a constructive but critical stance towards empirical research about the effectiveness of teaching methods and the realism of character traits. (shrink)

In this article, I explore some contemporary versions of character education with specific reference to the extent to which they are viewed as constituting a form of citizenship education. I argue that such approaches often end up displacing the idea of political education and, through their language and stated aims, avoid any genuine engagement with the very concept of the political in all but its most superficial sense. In discussing some of the points raised by critics (...) of character education, I defend the need for a more robust and radical conception of the political as a basis for a form of political education. (shrink)

오늘날 대부분 한국인들은 어려서부터 부모의 권유에 의해 경쟁적으로 학원을 다니는 것을 시작으로 대학 경쟁, 취업 경쟁, 승진 경쟁 등으로 이어지는 무한 경쟁 사회 속에 살고 있다. 경쟁만 중시하는 사람은 혼자 하는 일을 잘 하지만, 다른 사람과 인간관계를 맺는 일에 서툴기 때문에 스트레스를 받기 쉽다. 이런 사람일수록 이해 타산적으로 맺는 인간관계에서 피곤함과 공허감을 느끼며, 주변에 자신의 입장을 이해해주고 믿어주며 마음을 터놓을 수 있는 사람이 드물다. 살아가는 과정에서 내 입장을 묵묵히 믿어주고 무조건적으로 이해해주며 받아주는 사람이 있다는 것은 그 자체가 행복한 일이다. 그 (...) 분이 부모님이라면 더할 나위 없이 좋은 일이다. 효도는 그런 측면에서 오늘날에도 여전히 유효하다. 내 마음과 다른 사람의 마음이 하나임을 체험할 수 있는 가장 효율적인 방법이 부모의 사랑을 통한 효도이다. 자녀는 힘들고 어려울 때 부모를 찾고, 부모의 따뜻한 만남을 통해 심신의 안정과 위안을 얻는다. 자녀에게 있어서 부모와의 만남은 행복의 보루인 것이다. 자녀의 측면에서 자신의 행복을 계속 이어지기 위해서는 부모가 건강해야 한다. 효도의 본질적인 의미도 여기에서 출발한다. 자애로운 부모의 사랑을 바르게 체험한 자녀는 부모에 대한 효성스러운 마음이 자연스럽게 뻗어 나오게 된다. 부모에 대한 효도가 정립되는 만큼 부모를 매개로 형제자매 간의 우애로 뻗어 나가게 되며, 주변 사람에 대한 사랑도 나오게 된다. 최근 정부에서는 전통적인 효도의 가치를 계속 유지하고, 자녀가 부모를 방치하지 않고 부양하는 사회적 분위기를 만들어나가는 계기를 삼기 위해 효도를 장려하고 지원하는 법률을 제정하여 시행하고 있다. 만약 법률을 제정하고 시행하는 것에만 머물고 효도의 본질적인 의미를 제대로 파악하지 못한다면 형식에 치우치거나 자신의 이해득실을 위해 악용할 수 있으며, 효과는 미비해질 수밖에 없다. 그런 측면에서 효 윤리의 인성교육적 시사점과 의의를 새롭게 재조명할 필요성이 제기된다. (shrink)

Character Education in America's Blue Ribbon Schools is based upon descriptive, documentary, and qualitative research conducted on the award winning school applications in the United Stated Department of Education's Elementary School Recognition Program, i.e. the Blue Ribbon Schools. The purpose of the program is to focus national attention on schools that are doing an exceptional job with all of their students. Areas studied are developing a solid foundation of basic skills and knowledge of subject matter and fostering (...) the development of character, values, and ethical judgement. The first edition of this book reported on the first decade of this program, from 1985 to 1994. The second edition adds the schools that have won the award from 1996-2001. Included are the Blue Ribbon schools that applied for Special Honors in Character Education and five that actually won that recognition in 1998-1999. This edition finds character education much stronger in American schools in recent years and is full of many promising practices. It is a practical book that will guide school administrators, teachers, parents, board members, and concerned citizens interested in starting or strengthening the character education focus of their school. (shrink)

Character Education juxtaposes John Dewey's philosophy of the person and values education with Alasdair MacIntyre's treatment of Aristotle's virtue theory in order to highlight the importance of virtue in developing good character.

The research project described in this report represents one of the most extensive studies of character education ever undertaken, including over 10,000 students and 255 teachers in schools across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Research techniques consisted of a mixture of surveys, moral dilemmas and semi-structured interviews. This report explores: - The current situation in character education, both in the UK and internationally - How developed British students are with respect to moral character and (...) the extent to which they are able to understand and apply moral virtues, especially those aged 14 and 15 - How teachers in the UK understand their role in terms of students’ moral and character development - What helps or hinders the development of children’s characters according to teachers in UK schools. (shrink)

The godless public school system, not content with the influence it possesses as school, is slowly usurping the places of Home and Church and is coming to function, not only in its rightful capacity but also as the supreme and only trainer of the young. Thus is St. Thomas' doctrine "De Magistro" subverted. Mr. Cavanaugh's article deals with the School's efforts to give birth to what if does not of itself possess.

How can we reconcile the fact that in order to act virtuously we appear to need to refer to the concept of a free will, while, at the same time, there are convincing philosophical arguments (aligned with a contemporary scientific understanding of natural causation) discrediting any viable notion of an unconstrained or uncaused will? Taking its cue from this important question, this chapter will proceed along the following lines. First, I aim to substantiate the link between contemporary character (...) class='Hi'>education and the concept of the free will so as to illustrate the interdependency between the two. Next, I will scrutinize the concept of a free will, raising some philosophical concerns about its validity in a contemporary educational context. This involves looking at the philosophical stakes involved in proposing a unique capacity to intervene with the causal order of nature. At this point, I will suggest that there is a way out of this conundrum, and I will continue by proposing a radically different understanding of the will, offered by the seventeenth-century rationalist Spinoza. The chapter will close by looking at some of the practical consequences of grounding contemporary character education in a Spinozistic conception of the will. (shrink)

In A Platonic Theory of Moral Education, Mark Jonas and Yoshiaki Nakazawa have argued that Plato outlines a theory of virtue education. Alkis Kotsonis has similarly argued that Plato articulated a theory of intellectual character education. I think that Jonas, Nakazawa, and Kotsonis have opened a productive line of enquiry on this matter, and I expand on their work in this paper by identifying connections between Plato’s work and the contemporary discourse on character education, (...) which features four domains of virtues: moral, intellectual, civic, and performance virtues. Plato’s treatment of virtue, I argue, not only can be mapped onto the contemporary treatment of character education but it also further demonstrates that cultivating virtue—the project of character education—was a paramount concern for Plato. (shrink)

In this chapter, I will discuss employing exemplars in moral and character education promoting virtue development with the involvement of embodiment. Virtue ethicists propose two phases of virtue development: early virtue habituation and later phronesis cultivation. I will overview prior research on the mechanism of habituation at the biological and neural levels to examine why embodiment is fundamental during the first phase, virtue habituation. Then, I will review recent philosophical and psychological studies about the nature of phronesis, i.e., (...) practical wisdom, to consider how educational activities cultivate it. Based on these preliminary examinations of the course of virtue development, I will examine the previous literature about the role and importance of using exemplars in moral and character education involving concrete and interactive activities with the exemplars involving embodiment during the learning process. Finally, I will draw upon the Self-determination theory about supporting students’ need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to consider a way to improve the effectiveness of exemplar-applied education along with embodiment. After examining the relevant theoretical frameworks mentioned above, I will discuss several practical guidelines for using exemplars involving character embodiment for virtue development. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to talk about the development of cooperation with Russian teachers over the past ten years as part of assisting in the use of the Bible in order to include ethics and character-building lessons in the educational process in schools and higher educational institutions.

Character education is a specific approach to morals or values education, which is consistently linked with citizenship education. But how is it possible for a heterogeneous society that disagrees about basic values to reach a consensus on what constitutes character education? This article explores how character education has returned to the agenda of British education policy, having been largely neglected since the 1960s in response to unsatisfactory attempts at character (...) class='Hi'>education going back to the nineteenth century. Between 1979 and 1997 Conservative governments attempted to reverse a perceived decline in moral standards, established State control of the schools curriculum, imposed on State schools the duty to provide for moral and other development, and established a National Forum which attempted to articulate a set of consensus values in education. Labour has extended these developments in the curriculum, introduced compulsory citizenship education, and its White Paper of September 2001 speaks of 'education with character'. The character and virtues Labour seeks to promote through schools are pragmatic and instrumental in intention, linked to raising pupil school performance, meeting the needs of the new economy, and promoting democratic participation. Otherwise the vision is pluralistic and evades explicit directives, and there is no explanation or analysis of its theoretical basis. The question of how agreement can be reached on what counts as character education may benefit from Sunstein's analysis of how law is possible in a heterogeneous society - 'incompletely theorized agreements on particular cases' allow for common laws without agreement on fundamental principles. Many schools in fact operate in this way, but such a consensus is not entirely stable and runs the danger of teaching character education as a series of behaviour outcomes taught in a behaviourist fashion. (shrink)

ABSTRACTAs neo-Aristotelian character education approaches have become more popular, the list of objections has increased too. This paper focuses on the objection that while character education proponents claim to be ‘progressive’ and ‘reformative’ they seem to maintain the educational status quo. This paper examines what happens to neo-Aristotelian character education approaches when they are implemented in schools. First, a range of authors is consulted that has critically followed character education approaches, in particular (...) the one advocated by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues. Second, the Bildung tradition is discussed, which was also intended as a progressive and cosmopolitan project, but was used by German governments in the 19th century to fashion the nation state. Finally, a comparison between the two approaches is made, raising the question whether it is possible for states to run an education system that does not distort ideals of what it means to be human. (shrink)

We suggest that there is a need for those who seek to explore issues associated with the implementation of citizenship education in England to clarify its specific nature. This can be done, at least in part, through a process of comparison. To that end we review some of the connections and disjunctions between 'character education' and 'citizenship education'. We argue, drawing from US and UK literature but focusing our attention on contexts and issues in England, that (...) there are indeed some broad areas of overlap between these two fields. Citizens should be of 'good' character and the educational initiatives that we consider both emerge from a concern about current trends in society. However, we suggest that the overlaps with citizenship education principally apply when character education is drawn very broadly. When we examine a particular approach to character education that is often US-based, and titled as 'citizenship', we note many contrasts with citizenship education as formulated in the National Curriculum for England. We suggest that citizenship educators in England need to interpret claims about the similarity between these two fields with caution, or meanings that apply to both character education and citizenship education will be distorted. (shrink)

우리는 세계 최초로 인성교육법이 독립된 법체계를 갖춘 현실 앞에 서 있다. 본 논문의 문제의식은 바로 거기에서 출발한다. 인성교육에서 우리가 주목해야 하는 바는 인성의 덕목들이 아니다. 인성에 관한 수많은 연구서들이 예증하듯, 인성의 개념과 덕목은 명확하게 합의되고 규정될 수 있는 것이 아니기 때문이다. 인성교육의 핵심은 그것이 학생들을 관통해 어떻게 실천되고 또한 그 실천이 지속되는가에 있다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 고대 스토아 철학의 주효한 논의인 자기 배려를통해 인성교육의 실천적 조건을 탐색해 본다. 인성에 관한 논의는 시대적으로 불변하는 통시성과 동시대의 공간에서 통용되는 공시성을 가지고 있다. 그 (...) 공통항의근간에 위치해야 하는 것은 바로 자기 자신과 연관한 인성이다. 스토아 철학에 따르면, 자기에 대한 배려는 사회적 실천을 통해 공동체에 더 공고히 기여하는 구성원을 창출해낸다. 더구나 그것은 조사결과가 증명하는 바와 같이, 우리나라 학생들에 있어서 가장 불안정한 인성의 요소이기도 하다. 치열한 경쟁 구도 속에서 개인의 영달을 추구할 수밖에 없는 우리 교육구조 속에서 예상과 달리 자신과 관련한인성요인이 불안정한 이유는 무엇인가? 그것은 학생들로 하여금 행위를 지속하게하는 동인이 자기 자신이 아닌 외부로 부터의 주입에 있기 때문이다. 그러므로 본논문이 포착하는 인성교육의 실천적 조건은 바로 스토아 철학의 자기 배려다. 자기 배려의 핵심은 행위를 지속하게 하는 동인을 우리 자신에 두는 것이다. 명상과성찰, 정신의 단련 등 구체적인 방법을 통해 평생 동안 자기 배려를 이어가게 하는 스토아 철학은 인성교육의 실천적 조건에 중요한 함의를 제공한다. (shrink)

In the Republic, Plato developed an educational program through which he trained young Athenians in desiring truth, without offering them any knowledge-education. This is not because he refused to pass on knowledge but because he considered knowledge of the Good as an ongoing research program. I show this by tracing the steps of the education of the Philosopher-Kings in Plato’s ideal state, to establish that the decades-long educational regime aims at training them in three types of virtue: Moral (...) Virtue; the Cognitive Virtue of Abstraction; the Cognitive Virtue of Debate.Plato’s theory of education has much to teach us about intellectual character education today. The Platonic educational program does not advocate the direct transmission of knowledge from teacher to learner but rather focuses on building the learners’ epistemic dispositions. Building upon the Socratic Method, Plato’s educational program does not ‘spoon-feed’ knowledge to the learners but rather fosters the growth of intellectual virtues through problem-solving.I explain ways in which fostering intellectual virtues through problem-solving could be applied in classrooms today. I conclude that Plato’s rigorous educational program is of definite merit for contemporary virtue education, especially since Aristotle offers us surprisingly little on how to educate for intellectual virtues. (shrink)

한국은 20세기에 산업화와 민주화를 모두 성공시킨 거의 유일한 나라로 평가받고 있다. 그러나 한국의 압축적 성장 이면에 정신적 가치와 도덕성 쇠퇴라는 그림자가 드리워져 있다. 본 연구는 우리 사회의 도덕성 쇠퇴의 원인을 시장 이데올로기와 공리주의적 윤리관의 부정적 측면에서 기인한 윤리의식의 미흡과 그릇된 가치관에서 찾았다. 우리 시대 도덕성 회복은 다양한 층위의 인성교육에서 그 해법을 찾을 필요가 있다. 본 연구에서는 무엇보다 인성교육의 내실화와 체계화의 필수조건을 제도적 차원에서 해명하고자 했다. 인성교육의 공고화를 위해서 인성교육진흥법으로 대표되는 국가적 인성교육 제도 구축과 운영, 성인대상의 인성교육, 학교와 가정․지역사회를 연계한 청소년 (...) 인성교육, 학교 도덕과교육을 통한 인성교육, 현직 교원연수 및 교원양성대학의 인성교육에 대해 논구하였다. (shrink)

Literature and Character Education in Universities presents the potential of literary and philosophical texts for character education in modern universities. The book engages with theoretical and practical aspects of character development in higher education, combining conceptual discussion of the role of literature in character education with applied case studies from university classrooms. Character education within the academic context of the university presents unique challenges and opportunities. Literature and Character (...) class='Hi'>Education in Universities presents perspectives from academics in Europe, the USA and Asia, offering unique insights into the ways that engaged reading and discussion of core texts can promote the development of intellectual and moral virtues. Chapters draw on a wide range of texts from Confucius' Analects to J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, focusing on themes such as truthfulness, self-knowledge, prudence, tolerance, friendship, and humility. Literature and Character Education in Universities will be of real use to researchers, academics and postgraduates in the fields of higher education, philosophy, and literature. It should be essential reading for university educators interested in character development and advocates of literary education in modern universities. (shrink)

Since its resurgence in the 1990s, character education has been subject to a bevy of common criticisms, including that it is didactic and crudely behaviorist; premised on a faulty trait psychology; victim‐blaming; culturally imperialist, racist, religious, or ideologically conservative; and many other horrible things besides. Matt Ferkany and Benjamin Creed examine an intellectualist Aristotelian form of character education that has gained popularity recently and find that it is largely not susceptible to such criticisms. In this form, (...) character education is education for practically intelligent virtue, or the intrinsically motivated and psychically harmonious exercise of robust and stable traits involving practical intelligence conducive to individual and collective human flourishing. (shrink)

The different sorts of virtuous people who display various virtues to a remarkable degree have brought the issue of individualisation of moral character to the forefront. It signals a more personal dimension of character development which is notoriously ignored in the current discourse on character education. The case is made that since in practice, the individualisation of moral character must, by necessity, advance side by side with the cultivation of virtues, a full account of (...) class='Hi'>character education needs to give consideration to both concerns. After analysing the specific ways which temperament, social roles, and occupations respectively contribute to the individualisation of moral character, some practical implications are drawn to shed new light on the common practice of the inculcation of virtues. Firstly, since the varieties of moral personality is the norm, it is appropriate to encourage the educated to become virtuous people of different sorts. Secondly, given the influence that temperament may exert on virtue, having good knowledge of each child’s temperament, identifying the specific difficulties possibly confronting him/her accordingly, and then providing more opportunities to strengthen the cultivation of the related virtues are crucial. Thirdly, since children with different temperaments are inclined to identify with different sorts of moral exemplars, it is valuable to present them a great variety of moral models, from which they can choose the kind of virtuous people they would want to emulate. Lastly, since assuming different occupations and social roles is liable to result in various moral characters, character formation cannot be confined to the family or school. Among others, workplaces and communities are also important variables. (shrink)

ABSTRACTModern Kantians often address the conception of Kant as ‘cold hearted rationalist’ by arguing that there is a place, in Kantian moral theory, for the emotions. This theme of reconciling Kantianism with the emotions is concurrent with a recent interest, on the part of some Kantians, in issues pertaining to character education. This paper will argue that Kantianism has much to offer character education; in particular, inclusiveness of those who might have difficulty experiencing appropriate moral emotion. (...) Nevertheless, I will argue that this inclusivity can only be maintained if Kantians refrain from over-emotionalising their accounts. (shrink)

This is an investigation of Character Education in American public schools in the Chicago area. The research involved interviewing almost 700 children from a wide variety of schools and ages. The children were asked about their views on citizenship, Americanness and identity. They were also asked explicitly what they thought of Character Education. The results indicate that, despite a similar programme of education, teaching attitudes and teaching materials, the most marked difference between the children's responses (...) correlated strongly with the type of school, magnet or non-magnet, they were attending. This indicates that the social and political background, which determines their school, does have an impact on the way that an educational programme is received and understood, at least in the terms of how children articulate their ideas, if not in terms of how these programmes affect their behaviour. (shrink)