In the spring half term ReachOut was invited to attend a
one day training course in Character Education with the Jubilee Centre in Birmingham . Character Education has been the subject of increased interest in the UK
recently, with more and more schools and other institutions incorporating
it into their curricula. The Jubilee
Centre for Character and Virtues was established at the University
of Birmingham in 2012 as a dedicated
centre for the study and research of character and virtues. Their conviction is that character
and virtue can be taught and that both have been largely neglected by the UK education system. As a Junior Mentor Project Leader for ReachOut I was intrigued by the centre’s approach and traveled there with the London
team, eager to learn about the philosophy behind their claims.
The centre's research and project aims are far reaching. Introducing us to the centre, Tom Harrison talked about how recent events such as the riots in 2011, the MP's expenses scandal, and the actions of the banking industry prior to the recession, had sparked growing interest in morality in British media and academia. The centre was set up partly in response to these events to investigate how education could be improved to foster a more virtuous society in the future. Harrison’s doctorate focused on young people’s use of the internet and the centre is made up of 30 academics from different disciplines, from history to psychology, who research the nature of virtue and how it functions in the
The highlight of the day for me was our seminar with
Kristjan Kristjansson, an Icelandic philosopher and a Professor of Character
Education at the centre. In a very short
time he introduced us to a huge volume of ideas and new research on character
education, exploring the history of the practice in the UK and US and
the psychology and philosophy behind it.
Comparisons with America - where character education has had a long history - were frequent during the day and
the Jubilee Centre’s academics were keen to distance themselves from the ‘instrumentalist’
character education developed by writers like Paul Tough in the 1980's. The Jubilee Centre advocates
an Aristotelian approach to character education, fostering moral values or
virtues with an intrinsic goal of ‘being kind’ and ‘becoming’ virtuous rather
than simply ‘acting’ in a virtuous way.
Since many people have misgivings about the nature of character
education, it has been one of the centre’s missions to define their own
practices and move away from the perception of character education as paternalistic,
nostalgic and individualistic. For more
on this read Professor Kristjansson's article here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2013.778386
The rest of the afternoon we spent in workshops, focusing on
our own experiences and ideas about character education, which was a valuable
opportunity for many of us to think more deeply about our own practice and the
philosophies behind ReachOut’s work. It
was fascinating to hear from all the speakers and their work on character. The work being done at the Jubilee centre is opening doors for educators to bring character and values to the forefront of education in Britain. All the centre’s reports, including a full
character education curriculum for 14-19 year olds can be freely downloaded
here: http://jubileecentre.ac.uk/474/portal
The real challenge for the centre will be the opening of
their own secondary school in September, at which their research is informing a
curriculum where character education is woven into the entire school day. The University of Birmingham School has
created waves and is already highly oversubscribed, though they will be taking
an equally experimental approach to pupil selection, eschewing a standard
catchment area to select pupils from diverse backgrounds. We were fortunate to
meet some of the new school’s teachers during the day and I look forward to
hearing more about their work as the school begins accepting students.
Rosa Kurowska
ReachOut Junior Mentor Project Leader
you guys are doing good job!
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