A Framework for Character Education in Schools

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A Framework
for Character
Education in
Schools
‘The aim of our studies is not just to know
what virtue is, but to become good.’
Aristotle
INTRODUCTION
The development of children’s characters is
an obligation we all share, not least parents.
Whilst parents are the primary educators of
their children’s character, empirical research
tells us that parents want all adults who have
contact with their children to contribute to such
education, especially their children’s teachers.
The development of character is a process that

and the society and its schools. A society
determined to enable its members to live well
will treat character education as something to
which every child has a right. Schools should
consider questions about the kinds of persons
their students will become, how the development
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and how to balance various virtues and values
in this process. The aim of this Framework is
to provide a rationale and a practical outlet for
the interest that schools show in the character
development of their students.
Belonging to and actively participating in a school
community is a deeply formative experience that
helps students develop, amongst other things,
their character. In a broad sense, character
education permeates all subjects, wider school
activities, and a general school ethos; it cultivates
the virtues of character associated with common
morality and develops students’ understanding
of what is excellent in diverse spheres of human
endeavour. Schools should and do aid students
in learning to know the good, love the good, and
do the good. Schools should enable students
to become good persons and citizens, able to
lead good lives, as well as become ‘successful’
persons. Schooling is concerned centrally with
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intentional and planned approach to character
development.
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


requires the acquisition and development of
intellectual, moral, and civic virtues, excellence
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human endeavour, and generic virtues of self-
management (known as enabling or performance
virtues). All are necessary to achieve the highest
potential in life. Character education teaches the
acquisition and strengthening of virtues: the traits
that sustain a well-rounded life and a thriving

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contributors to society, successful learners, and
responsible citizens. Students also need to grow
in their understanding of what is good or valuable
and their ability to protect and advance what is
good. They need to develop a commitment to
serving others, which is an essential manifestation
of good character in action. Questions of character
formation are inseparable from these educational
goals and are fundamental to living well and
responsibly. Character development involves
caring for and respecting others as well as caring
for and respecting oneself.
Character education is no novelty. If we look at
the history of schooling from ancient times to
the 20th century, the cultivation of character was
typically given pride of place, with the exception of
a few decades towards the end of the 20th century
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disappeared from the curricula of many Western
democracies. Contemporary character education,
however, is better grounded academically than
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from the currently popular virtue ethics in moral
philosophy, and recent trends in social science,
such as positive psychology, that have revived
the concepts of character and virtue. Finally, a
growing general public-policy consensus, across
political parties and industry, suggests that the
role of moral and civic character is pivotal in
sustaining healthy economies and democracies.
for character & virtues 1

WHAT CHARACTER
EDUCATION IS
Character is a set of personal traits or
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emotions, inform motivation and guide
conduct. Character education includes all
explicit and implicit educational activities that
help young people develop positive personal
strengths called virtues. Character education
is more than just a subject. It has a place in the
culture and functions of families, classrooms,
schools and other institutions. Character
education is about helping students grasp
what is ethically important in situations and
how to act for the right reasons, such that they
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the practice of virtue. Students need to decide
wisely the kind of person they wish to become
and to learn to choose between already existing
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the ultimate aim of character education is
the development of good sense, or practical
wisdom; the capacity to choose intelligently
between alternatives. This capacity involves
knowing how to choose the right course of
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gradually out of the experience of making
choices and the growth of ethical insight.
WHAT CHARACTER
EDUCATION IS NOT
The ultimate goal of all proper character
education is to equip students with the
intellectual tools to make wise choices of their
own within the framework of a democratic
society. Critical thinking is thus a vital facet of
a well-rounded character. Character and virtue
are not exclusively religious notions. Character
and virtue are not paternalistic notions, either.
If being ‘paternalistic’ means that character
education goes against the wishes of students
and their parents, empirical research shows
the opposite. More generally speaking, the
character of children cannot simply be put on
hold at school until they reach the age where
they have become wise enough to decide for
themselves. Some form of character education
will always be taking place in school. The
sensible question to ask about a school’s
character education strategy is not, therefore,
whether such education does occur, but
whether it is intentional, planned, organised,
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reactive, and random. The emphasis on
character and virtue is not conservative or
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The ultimate aim of character education is
not only to make individuals better persons
but to create the social and institutional
conditions within which all human beings can
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of this kind require that all members of the
society contribute in ways that collectively
provide everyone with opportunities to live
well. Conversely, the cultivation of individual
character is most likely to succeed in exactly
such conditions of reciprocity and equal
opportunity. Fundamental to these conditions
is an ethos of cooperation and mutual goodwill.
Other necessities, such as adequate nutrition
and good health provisions, are foundational
to acquiring the virtues, capabilities and
understanding essential to individual
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society.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
MORAL DEVELOPMENT
The development of character - and how
to enhance it through education - must be
understood against the backdrop of a theory
of moral development. According to a neo-
Aristotelian view of the psychology of moral
development, in which the current Framework
is grounded, there are a number of pathways
to becoming virtuous. These pathways are
described, in as simple terms as possible, in
the diagram ‘A Neo-Aristotelian Model of
Moral Development’. The Model foregrounds
the importance of early family upbringing,
although it does not exclude the adjustment of
negative moral traits formed in early childhood.
Depending on the nature of the education that
moral learners receive, they may progress rather
seamlessly through a trajectory of habituated
virtue, developing into autonomously sought and
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them with intrinsic motivation to virtuous action.
Or they may need to take a detour through a
pathway of good intentions, undermined by a
weakness of will, through practical habituation,
which provides them with the self-regulation
needed to at least be extrinsically motivated to act
virtuously.
2 for character & virtues

The most important lesson to be drawn from this
pathway model is that character educators should
never give up the hope that an individual student
can be helped on the way to full autonomous
virtue. No two people will progress towards virtue
in exactly the same way, nor at exactly the same
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education thus need to take account of contextual
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solutions that work for each individual school,
class, or student.
WHICH VIRTUES CONSTITUTE
GOOD CHARACTER?
Individuals can respond well, or less well,
to the challenges they face in everyday life,
and the virtues are those character traits that
enable human beings to respond appropriately
to situations in any area of experience. These
character traits enable people to live, cooperate
and learn with others in a way that is peaceful,

moral and other virtues in admirable activity over
the course of a life, and enjoying the inherent
satisfaction that ensues, is what it means to live a


experience and the respective virtues can be
given, as the virtues will to a certain extent be
relative to individual constitution, developmental
stage and social circumstance. For example,
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
counts as virtuous behaviour for a teenager
may not pass muster for a mature adult; and
the virtues needed to survive in a war zone
may not be the same as those in a peaceful
rural community. There are also a great many
virtues, each concerned with particular activities
and potential spheres of human experience. It
is, therefore, neither possible nor desirable to
provide an exhaustive list of the moral virtues
that should be promoted in all schools. Moreover,
particular schools may decide to prioritise
certain virtues over others in light of the school’s
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population. Nevertheless, a list of prototypical
virtues – that will be recognised and embraced
by representatives of all cultures and religions –
can be suggested and drawn upon in character
education. The list below contains examples of
such virtues that have been highlighted in some
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systems of morality – and that also resonate well
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schools:
KEY PRINCIPLES FOR
CHARACTER EDUCATION
•Character is educable and its progress can
be assessed holistically
•Character is important: it contributes to
human and societal ourishing
•Good education is good character
education
•Character is largely caught through role-
modelling and emotional contagion: school
culture and ethos are therefore central
•A school culture that enables students to
satisfy their needs for positive relationships,
competence, and self-determination
facilitates the acquisition of good character
•Character should also be taught: direct
teaching of character provides the
rationale, language and tools to use in
developing character elsewhere in and out
of school
•Character should be developed in
partnership with parents, employers and
other community organisations
•Character education is about fairness
and each child has a right to character
development
•Positive character development empowers
students and is liberating
•Good character demonstrates a readiness
to learn from others
•Good character promotes democratic
citizenship and autonomous decision-
making
for character & virtues 3

In addition to such prototypical moral virtues,

such as civility, service, citizenship, and
volunteering, which help students understand
their ties to society and their responsibilities
within it. Furthermore, all developing human
beings will need to possess a host of intellectual
virtues, such as curiosity, and critical thinking,
which guide their quest for knowledge and
information. Among the intellectual virtues one
deserves a special mention here. That is the virtue
which the ancient Greeks called phronesis, but
can also be called practical wisdom, or ‘good
sense’ – the overall quality of knowing what to
want and what not to want when the demands
of two or more virtues collide, and to integrate
such demands into an acceptable course of action.
Living with practical wisdom entails: considered
deliberation, well founded judgement and the
vigorous enactment of decisions. It reveals
itself in foresight, in being clear sighted and far
sighted about the ways in which actions will
lead to desired goals. The ability to learn from
experience (and make mistakes) is at the centre
of it. To live with practical wisdom is to be open-
minded, to recognise the true variety of things
and situations to be experienced. To live without
practical wisdom is to live thoughtlessly and
indecisively. Lack of practical wisdom shows itself
in irresoluteness, or remissions in carrying out
decisions and in negligence and blindness to our
circumstances. To live without practical wisdom
is to be narrow-minded and closed-minded; it
can reveal itself in an attitude of being ‘cocksure’
– a ‘know-it-all’ that resists reality. Practical
wisdom forms part of all the other virtues;
indeed it constitutes the overarching meta-virtue
necessary for good character.
... schools have a responsibility
to cultivate the virtues, dene and
list those they want to prioritise
and integrate them into all
teaching ...
Virtues are empowering and are a key to

the foundational role of the virtues in human
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
want to prioritise and integrate them into all
teaching and learning in and out of school.
Students therefore need to learn their meanings
and identify appropriate practices in which to
apply them in their lives, respecting themselves
(as persons of character) and being of service to
others.
In addition to the moral virtues, all human
beings need personal traits that enable them

are sometimes called performance virtues or
enabling virtues, to distinguish them from the

policy discourse, they are commonly referred

those is resilience – the ability to bounce back
from negative experiences. Others include

good programmes of character education will
include the cultivation of performance virtues,
but they will also explain to students that those
virtues derive their ultimate value from serving
morally acceptable ends, in particular from
being enablers and vehicles of the intellectual,
moral and civic virtues.

categories, they form a coherent, mutually
supportive whole in a well-rounded life, and
character education is all about their integration,
guided by the overarching intellectual virtue of
practical wisdom or ‘good sense’.
VIRTUE DEFINITIONS
Courage
Acting with bravery in fearful situations
Justice
Acting with fairness towards others by
honouring rights and responsibilities
Honesty
Being truthful and sincere
Compassion
Exhibiting care and concern for others
Gratitude
Feeling and expressing thanks for benets
Humility
Estimating oneself within reasonable limits
Integrity
The quality of having strong moral principles
Respect
Due regard for someone’s feelings and rights
4 for character & virtues
“
”

THE COMPONENTS OF VIRTUE
While the perfect unity of the virtues is an
admirable aim for the life-long cultivation
of character, most of us will never reach that
ideal. This is especially true for young moral
learners who are on the way to becoming more
virtuous. To complicate matters further, each
virtue does not constitute a single discrete
trait that one either has or has not. Rather,
each virtue comprises various components
that may not all develop in tandem. The

the Components of Virtue table on page
8. A student can be strong on one (say, with
Virtue Emotion) but weaker on another (say,
Virtue Action and Practice). Rarely will all
those components align in perfect harmony




The more of those components that have been
cultivated successfully, the more likely it is
that the student can master the whole virtue.
Character educators need not, therefore, feel
disheartened even if they only see progress in
some components of virtue at any particular
time in the educational process.
THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF CHARACTER
Intellectual Virtues
Character traits
necessary for
discernment,
right action and
the pursuit of
knowledge, truth
and understanding.
Examples:
autonomy; critical
thinking; curiosity;
judgement;
reasoning;
reection;
resourcefulness.
Practical Wisdom is the integrative virtue, developed through experience and critical reection,
which enables us to perceive, know, desire and act with good sense. This includes discerning,
deliberative action in situations where virtues collide.
Moral Virtues
Character traits that
enable us to act
well in situations
that require an
ethical response.
Examples:
compassion;
courage; gratitude;
honesty; humility;
integrity; justice;
respect.
Civic Virtues
Character traits
that are necessary
for engaged
responsible
citizenship,
contributing to the
common good.
Examples:
citizenship;
civility; community
awareness;
neighbourliness;
service;
volunteering.
Performance Virtues
Character traits
that have an
instrumental value
in enabling the
intellectual, moral
and civic virtues.
Examples:
condence;
determination;
motivation;
perseverance;
resilience;
teamwork.
Flourishing individuals and society
for character & virtues 5

Birth
(moral potential)
Parenting &
family upbringing
Positive moral habits
Critical reection
Moral
habituation
Positive moral
inuences
Virtue
knowledge and
understanding
Autonomous virtue reasoning
Extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation
Practical habituation
Moral education without
habituation
Critical reection
Extraordinary
altruism
Negative moral habits
More amenable
to moral
development
Caught
Caught
Sought
Sought
Taught
Taught
Taught
Less amenable to
moral development
Virtue Action and
Practice
Heroic Virtue
Lack of self-
regulation
Internalised
Virtuous
Habits
Full Autonomous
Virtue
Self-regulation
Virtue Knowledge
& Understanding
Virtue Reasoning Virtue Practice
A Neo-Aristotelian Model of Moral Development

“
Character virtues should be
reinforced everywhere: on the
playing elds, in classrooms,
corridors, interactions between
teachers and students, in
assemblies, posters, head
teacher messages and
communications, sta training,
and in relations with parents
VIRTUE LITERACY
‘Virtue Literacy’ is a helpful term that can be

F. There are two stages to enhancing Virtue

and understanding of virtue terms. The
second is developing the ability and will-
power to apply the virtues to real-life contexts.
Virtue Literacy consists of three inter-related
components:
(i) Virtue ‘Perception’;
(ii) Virtue ‘Knowledge & Understanding’; and
(iii) Virtue ‘Reasoning’.

situations standing in need of virtues. The
second component involves acquiring a
complex language usage through familiarity
with virtue terms. However, knowledge of
the virtues themselves will not necessarily
change behaviour. The third component
concerns making reasoned judgements which

moral situations. This emphasis on acquiring

the empowerment of the ethical self through
autonomous decision-making. A child may
acquire some cognitive understanding of
what would be the desirable virtue to display
in certain circumstances, but be unable to
translate this knowledge, understanding,
and reasoning into virtuous action. The
determination of whether a child is virtue
literate should not be reduced to simple
outcomes, but should consider all three
components. Children need to be persuaded
of the moral force of acting virtuously. Schools
need to provide opportunities for children
to exercise the virtues in practice as well as
encourage a rich discourse of virtue language,
understanding and reasoning.
8 for character & virtues
Virtue Perception
Noticing situations involving or standing in
need of the virtues
Virtue Knowledge and Understanding
Understanding the meaning of the virtue term
and why the virtue is important, individually
and as part of a well-rounded, ourishing life
of overall virtue, and being able to apply the
virtue to episodes of one’s own and others’ lives
Virtue Emotion
Feeling the right virtue-relevant emotion in the
right situation in the right way
Virtue Identity
Understanding oneself as strongly committed to
the virtues
Virtue Motivation
Having a strong desire to act on the virtues
Virtue Reasoning
Discernment and deliberative action about
virtues, including in situations where virtues
conict or collide
Virtue Action and Practice
Doing the right thing in the right way
Components of Virtue
A
D
B
E
C
F
G
”

THE GOALS OF
CHARACTER EDUCATION
It is common for a school to outline the goals of
education and a school that seeks to strengthen

its commitment to doing so in its mission
statement.
Each school needs to describe the kinds of
persons it wants to help develop and then
outline the philosophy that underlies its
approach in the development of its students. The
philosophy and approach should involve clear
ethical expectations of students and teachers,
and modelling by teachers to guide the building
of individual virtues in students. Schools should
provide opportunities for students to not just
think and do, but also understand what it means

They should help prepare students for the tests
of life, rather than simply a life of tests.
SCHOOL ETHOS
BASED ON CHARACTER
The research evidence is clear: schools that
are values-driven have high expectations and
demonstrate academic, professional and social
success. They are committed and determined
to develop the character of their students
through the articulation, demonstration of
and commitment to core ethical virtues and
to the cultivation of meaningful personal
relationships. Because the ethos of a school
is the expression of the collective character of
everyone, it is important for every member
of a school community to have some basic
understanding of what character is. Students
and teachers therefore need to learn not only
the names and meanings of character virtues,
but display them in the school’s thinking,
attitudes and actions. Character virtues should

in classrooms, corridors, interactions between
teachers and students, in assemblies, posters,
head teacher messages and communications,

Character virtues are critical in extra-curricular
activities and should translate into positive
feelings and behaviour. The process of being
educated in virtue is not only one of acquiring
ideas. It is about belonging and living within
a community – for schools are, together with
the family, one of the principal means by which
students grow in virtue. A key feature of school
communities that nurture good character
is that educators understand that students’
experience of belonging, personal growth,
and self-determination is foundational to the
development of good character and commitment
to learning.
TEACHERS AS
CHARACTER EDUCATORS
Character education builds on what already
happens in schools, and most teachers see
character cultivation as a core part of their
role. Considerations of character, of the kind
of person students hope to become, should be
at the heart of teaching and education. The
virtues acquired through experience by students
are initially under the guidance of parents and
teachers who serve as role models and moral
exemplars.
In order to be a good teacher, one needs
to be or become a certain kind of person: a

commitment to the value of what they teach.
The character and integrity of the teacher is
more fundamental than personality or personal
style in class, and it is no less important than
mastery of subject content and techniques of
instruction. Teaching a subject with integrity
involves more than helping students to acquire
for character & virtues 9
Virtues can be…
Caught: the school community of both staff
and students provide the example, culture,
and inspirational inuence in a positive
ethos that motivates and promotes character
development.
Taught: the school provides educational
experiences in and out of the classroom that
equip students with the language, knowledge,
understanding, skills and attributes that enable
character development.
Sought: the school provides varied
opportunities that generate the formation of
personal habits and character commitments.
These help students over time to seek, desire
and freely pursue their character development.


teaching is underpinned by an ethos and
language that enables a public discussion of
character within the school community so that
good character permeates all subject teaching
and learning. It also models commitment to the
forms of excellence or goodness inherent in the
subject matter: the qualities of craftsmanship,
artistry, careful reasoning and investigations,
beauty and power of language, and deep
understanding made possible by the disciplines.
Such commitment is important if students are to
learn the value of what is taught and learn to do
work that is good and personally meaningful.
Although a clear picture is emerging of the
inescapability of character education, teachers


their (inescapable) professional position as
role models and character educators. Repeated


classroom. Although many teachers possess
a strong interest in moral issues, they are not

upon and convey moral views to their students
in a sophisticated way. Unfortunately,
the recent surge in interest in character
education has so far failed to make an impact
on teacher education and training. Indeed,
contemporary policy discourse, with its amoral,
instrumentalist, competence-driven vocabulary,
often seems to shy away from perspectives
that embrace normative visions of persons in
the context of their whole lives. The lack of
teacher education programmes with a coherent
approach to character education is most likely
the result of an overly narrow concentration on
grade attainment and classroom management.
Statement on Teacher
Education and Character Education.
THE EVALUATION OF
CHARACTER EDUCATION
Schools are under increasing pressure to

the character of an individual or the impact of
a character education intervention is extremely


observing virtue in practice, it is not feasible or
desirable to aim for the aggregation of individual

become counter-productive, philosophically,
psychologically and educationally. Discretion
and circumspection is therefore required in
any aspiration to measure virtues holistically;
caution about the use of self-report measures
is especially advised. While there is no simple
and unproblematic way to ‘measure character’,
it is possible to evaluate the development of
particular components of virtue, as earlier

apply to evaluating the development of virtue
knowledge/understanding, on the one hand,
and virtuous emotions, on the other.
A crucial question to address at the outset is
what constitutes a valid purpose for evaluating
a given character education provision? There
are three legitimate purposes of evaluation

to evaluate how a school’s culture and ethos
contributes to character education; schools
can self-audit or be peer-audited against a
set of criteria about what is known about best
school practice in character education. Such
evaluations rest upon teachers’ professional
knowledge and judgement and the picture built
up by the evaluation provides evidence as to the
school’s collective strengths and weaknesses,

and time should be directed. The second

a character education strategy, activity, or

intervention and post-intervention surveys,
observations and interviews with teachers and
students can be applied with some success
to gain evidence about the impact of a new
or existing character education strategy or
activity. It is recommended that these are
carefully targeted at ‘measuring’ only one or two
components of virtue and it would be preferable
to triangulate data by using more than one
source of evidence. A third purpose is the self-

undertaken by students themselves. These
might be recorded at regular intervals during a
student’s educational journey, for example in a
journal. Evidence gained from peers, teachers
and parents would support this process.
10 for character & virtues

for character & virtues 11
In the end, as Aristotle said
What we are most anxious
to produce is a certain moral
character in our fellow citizens,
namely a disposition to virtue
and the performance of virtuous
actions
“
”
WHY CHARACTER EDUCATION
IS IMPORTANT
In summary:
• Character is fundamental: it is the basis
for human and societal ourishing;
• Character is largely caught through
role-modelling and emotional contagion:
school culture and ethos are therefore
central;
• Character should also be taught: direct
teaching of character provides the
rationale, language and tools to use in
developing character elsewhere in and
out of school;
• Character is sought freely to pursue a
better life;
• Character is educable: it is not xed
and the virtues can be developed. Its
progress can be measured holistically,
not only through self-reports but also
more objective research methods;
• Character depends on building Virtue
Literacy;
• Good character is the foundation for
improved attainment, better behaviour
and increased employability, but most
importantly, ourishing societies;
• Character should be developed in
partnership with parents, employers and
other community organisations;
• Each child has a right to character
education;
• The development of character empowers
students and is liberating.

12for character & virtues
FURTHER READING
A
and Wright, D. (2017) Teaching Character and Virtue in
Schools. London: Routledge.
AOf Good Character; Exploration of
Virtues and Values in 3-25 Year-Olds. Exeter: Imprint
Academic.
AEducation with Character. London:
Routledge.
Carr, D. (1991) Educating the Virtues. Essay on the
philosophical psychology of moral development and
education. London: Routledge.
Curren, R. (2014) ‘Motivational aspects of moral learning
and progress’, The Journal of Moral Education, vol. 43,
no. 4, pp. 484-499.
Aristotelian Character Education.
London: Routledge.

Virtue and Virtue Education - and Three Well-Founded
Misgivings’, British Journal of Educational Studies , vol.
61, no. 3, pp. 1-19.
Seider, S. (2012) Character Compass - How powerful
school culture can point students towards success.
Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.
TEACHING RESOURCES
H
Character Education: Evaluation Handbook for Schools.
Birmingham: University of Birmingham. Online at:
www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/handbook
Harrison, T., Bawden, M. and Rogerson, L. (2016)
Teaching Character Through Subjects. Birmingham:
University of Birmingham. Online at:
www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/characterthroughsubjects
Fullard, M. (2016) Teaching Character through the
Primary Curriculum. Birmingham: University of
Birmingham. Online at:
www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/teachingcharacterprimary
ubilee Centre for Character and Virtues (2015)
Statement on Teacher Education and Character
Education. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.
Online at:

character-education/Statement_on_Teacher_Education_
and_Character_Education.pdf
ubilee Centre for Character and Virtues (2014)
Statement on Youth Social Action and Character
Development. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.
Online at: 
jubileecentre/pdf/StatementSocialAction.pdf
ubilee Centre for Character and Virtues (2012)
The Knightly Virtues. Birmingham: University of
Birmingham. Online at:
www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/knightlyvirtuesresources
Smith, G. (2015) Character Education: A Taught
Course for 4 to 11 Year Olds. Birmingham: University of
Birmingham. Online at:
www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/primaryprogramme
Wright, D., Morris, I. and Bawden, M. (2014) Character
Education: A Taught Course for 11 to 16 Year Olds.
Birmingham: University of Birmingham. Online at:
www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/secondaryprogramme
This Framework is based on research conducted by the

reports can be found on the Centre’s website at
www.jubileecentre.ac.uk
For more information about the Framework or to
get involved with the work of the Jubilee Centre
please visit our website:
www.jubileecentre.ac.uk
978-0-244-91301-4 Jubilee Centre 20
17