Character education and the disappearance of the political

Suissa, Judith

doi:10.4324/9781315281414-11

Cited by 20 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…Of course, here the critic may reply simply that while a focus on civic virtues may be valuable in theory, difficulties arise in practice if the precise meaning of these civic virtues is essentially restrictive and serves to privilege the interests of some (i.e., those with access to power) over others (i.e., those without access to power). Indeed, some critics have suggested that character education is guilty of mistakenly universalising and essentialising virtues-including civic virtues-thereby excluding or denying cultural differences (see Boyd, 2011;Suissa, 2015 who both make this assertion). Here the response has to take a fairly simple, though initially vague, direction; namely, that civic virtues in contemporary plural democracies are likely to be those one can readily associate with 'active, critically-minded citizens who possess[ed] sufficient economic independence and equality of condition to exercise political judgement and engage in public affairs' (Sandel, 1998, pp.…”

Section: Character the Political And Civic Virtuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…More than a decade since, and despite some notable attempts to make clear the connections between them (see, for example, Carr, 2006), the relationship between character education and citizenship education 1 in a number of nations-including the United States, England and Canada-remains highly contested. 2 The analysis offered is intended as a direct response to the views that character education involves the 'disappearance of the political' (Suissa, 2015) or exhibits a 'cancerous' relationship with citizenship education (Boyd, 2010). In responding to recent work critical of the turn to character education in the United States, England and Canada, the aim here is twofold: First, to examine and contest the view that character education takes the individual as its primary focus and that, as a result, character education either underplays or ignores altogether wider connections with political communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The endeavour attempted here is also of practical relevance given that it is frequently the case that in practice curricula for citizenship education include some form of character education, whether to a greater or lesser extent (see, for example, Carnegie Corporation & CIRCLE, 2003;QCA, 1998QCA, , 2007. In addition, a further interesting feature of recent criticisms of character education is that several of those who offer criticism appear fairly open to the idea that character education can be reconciled with some form of citizenship education (see, for example, Boyd, 2011;Hoge, 2002;Suissa, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Character education, the individual and the political

Peterson

2019

Journal of Moral Education

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Recent critics have suggested that character education (either in and of itself or certain instantiations of it) is overly individualised and, as a result, fails to engage adequately with the political. In this paper, I offer an account of character education which takes issue with such criticisms, and seeks to make clear connections between the moral and the political necessary for character formation and expression. Drawing on an Aristotelian understanding of the political, I argue that individuals are intimately connected with their social associations, which in contemporary plural, westernised democracies include the sort of engagement with the political advocated by critics of character education. Through a focus on civic virtue and deliberative engagement, it is argued that an Aristotelian-inspired account of character addresses the precise concerns, including recognising and challenging social injustices and deliberative engagement with difference, which critics suggest are lacking from character education.

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Section: Character the Political And Civic Virtuementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Character education, the individual and the political

Peterson

2019

Journal of Moral Education

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“…Euade (2016), for example, suggests discussion of respect, a common school value, and indeed a British value, could also include debating the possibility of excessive deference, or respect for those engaged in unlawful behaviour. Suissa (2015) similarly discusses resilience, suggesting that the question 'are there things we should not be resilient to?' should be discussed with students.…”

Section: Civic Values?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the focus of values teaching/character education appears to be developing 'good' people rather than 'good' citizens (Suissa 2015), what Kisby (2017) Similarly, the promotion of British values does not appear to generate much explicit discussion of how can we live together, nor a view of politics as an on-going process of engagement with moral questions, rooted in human experience, such as to how to shape and organize society (Suissa 2015 p.113). Instead the promotion of British values in schools is dominated by the superficial celebration of apparently British artefacts, people and traditions.…”

Section: Civic Values?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Civic virtue and values teaching in a ‘post-secular’ world

Vincent

2018

Theory and Research in Education

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Drawing on empirical data, this paper makes a contribution to knowledge through bringing together the apparently disparate elements of contemporary education policy, religion, civic virtue, and values teaching, in particular the teaching of 'fundamental British values'. I illustrate, through a discussion of the linkages between these elements, how religion remains a strong influence on contemporary education policy, both explicitly with regard to the integration of Muslim 'others' and implicitly through the growing popularity of values education in schools. In order to develop this argument, I first outline the extent to which Christianity, often de-theologised, shapes normative Western European values and permeates apparently secular spaces. Second, I identify some school responses to the British values policy and note the importance of the political and social context informed, I argue, by acute anxiety around Islam and extremism. Third, through the discussion of one particular school site, I identify the trend towards emphasising values education in secular schools, and the implicit religious undertones within this. I suggest that we can understand this trend as an instance of the post-secular where religious influences remain strong in apparently secular places, but argue that there are limitations to such an approach to values education in terms of increasing pupil voice and agency. IntroductionThis paper discusses the relationship between values teaching -and the teaching of fundamental British values in particular -religion and civic virtues, drawing on an initial analysis of data from an on-going project funded by the Leverhulme Trust 1 .It draws attention to the growing focus on teaching values in schools. Values are the traditional arena of faith schools -a theme of this Special Issue -as different faiths define for children how to treat others and live a 'good' life. However, the current wave of values teaching that I discuss here affects faith and non-faith schools and I am going to concentrate on two forms: one, the government's directive to schools to promote 'fundamental British values', and two, the rise amongst schools of value/moral/character education (variously named). I suggest here that we cannot understand either of these initiatives -neither overtly religious -without understanding how they are pervaded by religion, especially Christianity, although often in a de-theologised form; thus, I shall consider 'how the theological still inhabits the putatively secular' (Golder 2007 p.170-1, see below). Furthermore, I conclude by arguing that neither of these forms of values teaching provides a thorough civic education. Data collectionData are drawn from a project focusing on how teachers understand and promote British values. The Department for Education (DfE) (2014) defines 'fundamental British values' -which English schools are required to promote -as democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths 2 . The school's inspectorate, Ofsted, inc...

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Recent Work on Flourishing as the Aim of Education: A Critical Review

Kristjánsson

2016

British Journal of Educational Studies

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Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.

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Character education and the disappearance of the political

Cited by 20 publications

References 1 publication

Character education, the individual and the political

Character education, the individual and the political

Civic virtue and values teaching in a ‘post-secular’ world

Recent Work on Flourishing as the Aim of Education: A Critical Review

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