Aristotelian Character Education
17 important questions on Aristotelian Character Education
A personal note from Wouter
Virtuous Professionals. A selection of virtues for social workers (Banks, 1995. Ethics and Values in Social Work, p. 73)
Compassion, detached caring, warmth, honesty, moral courage, hopefulness, humility.
Bowles et al. (2006)
Open-mindedness, practical reasoning, moral courage, reflectiveness/critical reflection, empathy, integrity/commitment to social work values, discretion, tolerance/valuing diversity, good judgement/'wisdom'
Akademikerförbundet SSR (2006)
Integrity, critical self-insight, responsibility, courage/moral courage, a sense of justice, balanced judgement, tolerance/broadmindedness, empathy/sensitivity and a basic attitude of respect, friendliness and equality in relation to others.
Banks and Gallagher (2009)
Professional wisdom, courage, respectfulness, care, trustworthiness, justice and professional integrity.
A virtuous chaplain?
Virtue ethical questions:
- What kinds of moral qualities might a chaplain exhibit and aspire to?
- How are these manifested in their professional relationships and actions?
- How can these qualities be promoted through practice and education?
Virtues of the chaplain (UKBHC, 2014; Newitt, 2016)
- Respect, sensitivity, discernment (scherpzinnigheid), openness, honesty, trustworthiness, care.
- Giving hope requires: attentiveness, openness, probity (eerlijkheid/rechtschapenheid)
UKBHC (2014) Code of conduct for healthcare chaplains; Newitt (2016). Healthcare chaplains among the virtues?
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What are Kristjanssons Key notions ? (Kristjánsson, 2015)
Virtuous action: an action that enhances virtue and contributes to a flourishing life
Character: a subset of personality that is reason-responsive, educable, morally evaluable and contributes to one’s moral worth.
Flourishing (living well): acting in such a way that human excellences (virtues) are realised
Character education: an approach to moral education that foregrounds the cultivation of good character.
Short History (Arthur, 2014)
Antiquity: Plato/Aristotle
Virtues to be happy as citizens in the polis
Middle Ages:
Virtues needed to realise Kingdom of God
Enlightenment + Victorian age (19th century)
Virtues in a still Christian industrial society
1980/1990s
Virtues in an increasingly individualized, pluralistic society
A new kind of character education?
What is ‘traditional’ about the approaches discussed by Arthur?
- Societies need certain vitues of its citizens
- Schools transmitted these virtues to young people
A new kind of character education?
What can we learn from this history for character education today? (by Arthur)
- Guiding instead of ‘stamping’
- Philosophically justified, psychologically validated and educationally effective
Character Education Methods
Methods (based on Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics)
- Modelling
- Habituation
- Arts (music, tragedy)
- Dialogue/philosophy
What does Character education look like in schools today?
2) Character education as separate subject
3) Modular programs
4) Character education integrated in several subjects
5) Extracurricular character activities
6) Whole school approach
Character Education VS Citizenship Education (Kisby, 2017)
What are the linkages and disjunctions between citizenship education and character education in England?
- Citizenship education should not be understood exclusively in terms of character education.
Linkages and disjunctions between Moral and Citizenship Education (Kisby)
- Moral education is broader than citizenship education
- Citizenship education is broader than moral education
Linkages and disjunctions between Moral and Citizenship Education (Kisby)
What defines Citizenship Education? (Kisby)
Skills to participate in political and democratic activities.
Linkages and disjunctions between Moral and Citizenship Education (Kisby)
What is the Character part of citizenship education?
What is citizenship education about?
How do we enable young people to...
Note
Liberal state grants individual freedom
This makes good life a personal matter
Some think religion has a public dimension, and that state should promote religion and religious morals more than individual freedom.
What are other criticisms on Character Education? (Kisby, 2017)
is a form of indoctrination
is driven by right-wing political agenda
uses hierarchical teaching methods
sounds Victorian
cannot successfully be taught
Is more effective at home than in schools
places sole responsibility on individuals for their character development
What is Arthur's answer to these questions?
What is your answer? And why?
Is Character education necessarily a form of behaviour control, discipline and training? (p. 52)
"and a plurality of positions including character education, can coexist".
"there is no necessary connection between a conservative political outlook and character education"
Character Education is seen, by Brooks&Goble, as the solution to a problem: children just don't seem to know the difference between right and wrong...
They attack all other methods of moral education: values clarification, cognitive theories ofdevelopment.
A virtue ethics approach to character education is suggested.
What role can character education play in solving societal problems? (Arthur, p. 51)
These character educators believe that core values can be identified, justified and taught.
- explicit teaching in public schools of moral virtues, dispositions, traits, habits > through content and example of teachers
- ethos of the school
- direct teaching
- success of character education programs should be measured by the changes in behaviour of students.
The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:
- A unique study and practice tool
- Never study anything twice again
- Get the grades you hope for
- 100% sure, 100% understanding
