A “character” dissertation

One of the original prompts for the formation of The Ethos Consortium was an MA with the Institute of Education in London, on the topic of Character education, by one of the three partners in the consortium.

This MA was one of the things which prompted the consortium partners to realise that their work had in common far more, and something far deeper, than they’d thought about before.

An MA dissertation is based on a combination of reference to research in the field and practical investigation of the topic in one’s own context. We wholeheartedly recommend studying an MA with a leading educational university like the Institute to anyone. A dissertation is approximately 20,000 words (plus peripheral components) and is an in-depth study.

The dissertation is titled “Explicit, dialogic, opportunistic? How schools are and aren’t effective at educating qualities of character” and was studied in 2005-8 as the final component of an MA in School Effectiveness and School Improvement. The supporting tutor was Dr. John Pickering and the leading course tutor Dr. Caroline Lodge, to both of whom The Ethos Consortium as a whole are directly and indirectly indebted.

Clicking on the links below will download the documents requested. Permission for single printing and personal use is permitted. Reproduction and onward distribution are not authorised - please invite people to come to the site and look around and download for themselves. Note that, depending on your default font and formatting choices, downloaded material may not appear exactly as intended and some reformatting may be required.

Download the main dissertation document (including contents, bibliography).

Download the components of Appendix A (sample questionnaires for character education; distinct questionnaires for use with each of teachers and students) – these are readable immediately but we advise you read the dissertation on the limits we discovered these tools to have before practically using them.

Download Appendix C (research analysis of return rates, nuances in qualitative data) – again suitable for reading only after reading the dissertation.

Appendix B (tools for teachers) forms the basis of our resources for reflecting on Character education in schools section.