Character education is both a rooted and developing discipline. Even though there is no consensual definition, it can be widely described as a school- based process to promote personal development in youth, through the development of virtue, moral values, and moral agency. Starting from the growing interest about this theme in recent years, this article aims at using the "character education" analysis category to conduct an exploratory research on the main tendencies in the international literature, defining which are the main topics, exploring the way these topics develop in terms of theory and empirical research and analyzing how they relate to each other. In view of this goal, titles and abstracts of 261 articles published in 145 peer-reviewed academic journals over the period 2005-2014 were selected from Education Source, ERIC, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection and SocINDEX databases. Articles' titles and abstract were analyzed through the T-Lab software, using different content analysis techniques. Although many ambivalences and ambiguities affect the meaning attributed to the character education, some key trends emerge from this literature review and the considered studies seem to agree that character education can play an important role in the construction of children and adolescents' identity and can be a distinctive intervention for youth education and socialization.

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Character Education: Themes and Researches. An Academic Literature Review

The aim of this research was to develop an ethical leadership model for enhancing moral education in the diocesan colleges of Palai, Kerala, India. The researcher identified four specific objectives for this research. For accomplishing the first research objective, the researcher did the content analysis of 16 books and 114 articles directly related to the subject. These results were validated by twenty experts and from these results the instruments for the data collection for acquiring the second objective were developed. The data for second objective were collected by conducting in depth interviews with the administrators of the colleges and by using survey questionnaires for collecting data from the lecturers and the students. The results revealed the areas that needed improvements. The researcher, by making use of the ethical leadership theories and combining the results of the first and second research objectives, developed a new model for enhancing the moral education. The preliminary model was sent to 20 experts for their review. After having collected their suggestions, the researcher modified the model accordingly and thus the final model emerged. For accomplishing the fourth objective, a new curriculum was developed and the researcher implemented the new model for a period of three months in one of the colleges of the diocese of Palai. Pre-test and post-test were conducted. The results of the analysis of the data confirm that the new ethical leadership model for moral education is effective in terms of values, instructional strategies and moral assessment.

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An ethical leadership model for enhancing moral education in the diocesan colleges of palai, kerala, india

This study explored the perception of Lebanese public school leaders pertaining to character education, and their expected role within its development and effective implementation. The sample included 153 randomly selected public school principals from all the Lebanese districts (Mouhafazat). The purpose is to provide a general overview of their understanding, expectations, their knowledge of character education prescribed in the Lebanese curriculum goals, and their opinion as to the principal’s role in addressing character development. The study was quantitative in nature and utilized a survey instrument that consisted of 39 items classified into 12 domains of character. The first domain targeted the knowledge of school principals pertaining to the character development goals within the Lebanese curriculum, besides their perception of school’s educational mission. The other eleven domains were developed based on “The Eleven Principles of Effective Character Education” constructed by the character education partnership organization (CEP, 2014). SPSS 18.0 for windows was employed to calculate the mean and the standard deviation of responses in order to determine the perceptions of the Lebanese public school leaders related to character education. Findings suggested that Lebanese public school principals were generally not fully aware of the character goals outlined in the Lebanese curriculum and the school’s educational mission concerning building students’ character. Their perception on effective character education unmatched a wide scope of the eleven principles of character education. The study recommends a reform of character education in the Lebanese public schools involving the school principals as leaders of change.

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Perception of Character Education: The Case of Lebanese School Leaders

Currently schools in Ontario are focused on literacy and numeracy standards to prepare students for norm-referenced standardized tests that establish a competitive environment among students. Educators however have begun to recognize the need to move beyond focusing solely on skill acquisition to developing critical thinking and good character in children if they are to become democratic, tolerant and compassionate citizens of the world. Critical literacy and moral literacy are gathering increasing attention in educational discourse. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to deconstruct critical literacy and moral literacy and articulate the basic tenets of both. This paper will also illuminate the points of intersection between these two concepts and identify some potential strategies to enable teachers to translate critical and moral literacy theories into practice across the curriculum.

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The intersection of critical literacy and moral literacy: Implications for practice

An investigation of primary education in Bangladesh from a values education perspective: case studies of government primary schools

In this paper we explored conceptual ambiguities of character education within the present Ontario Ministry of Education initiative. Through the critical lens of moral development theories and theories of mind, social and cognitive domains and their affect on character development were examined. Based on these findings three shortcomings in implementation were identified: a lack of clarity in defining „character‟, a lack of recognition of the importance of cognitive and social processes in moral development, and a lack of clarity in effective strategies for character development. The recommendations for future implementation of character education were proposed.

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Character education re-conceptualized for practical implementation *

Adolescence is a stage when significant changes in moral development take place. Sometimes, a discrepancy between adolescents’ thoughts, emotions and actions may result in socially undesirable outc...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02673843.2020.1867206

Meta-moral cognition: bridging the gap among adolescents’ moral thinking, moral emotions and moral actions

/pdf/moral-literacy-through-two-lenses-pre-service-teachers-4zk2m4qxni.pdf

Kelly Rizzo

Papers

Character education re-conceptualized for practical implementation *

Meta-moral cognition: bridging the gap among adolescents’ moral thinking, moral emotions and moral actions

Moral Literacy through Two Lenses: Pre-Service Teachers' Preparation for Character Education.