Resources for reflecting on character education in schools

The following resources constitute Appendix B (“Tools for teachers”) from an MA dissertation by one of the consortium members underlying the formation of the consortium. Find out more about the dissertation as a whole, or download the resource of interest from the following list. The resources are suitable for reflection on their own, although they will make more sense if considered alongside reading of the dissertation.

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B1. Language and concepts. B2. Identifying your own position from a historical continuum of types of character education. In summarised form, this enables you to identify your own view(s) of character education and their origin, and to see the continuity and connectedness of the many positions, with a view to strengthening awareness of a possible common ground for character education discourse.

B3. Steps for progress towards an agreed character education. An explicit tool to support movement in schools towards an agreed agenda of character education by emphasising commonalities and the steps each type of character educator needs to make to promote consensus progress.

B4. Action research in the reader’s own context. Using a reflective tool from the SESI literature (Watkins et al, 2002), teachers are invited to consider a range of questions about their practice, context, institution and philosophy as to their and others’ engagement with character education, and how they might make it more focal to their work. You might also want to think about how this could lead to an Audit of school practice in Character education.

B5. Because a child is not a Tabula Rasa. A consensus-building flowchart of the main oppositional positions (faith-based and secular-psychological) and the implications for both groups from accepting that young people’s development cannot be freely moulded to suit the principles of each position, but rather requires some acceptance of the other position.