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CHAPTER 2

CHARACTER

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter you will understand:

the aims of character education;

the importance of adopting a whole-school approach to character education;

key considerations in relation to the planning and delivery of character education;

the importance of culture, behaviour, resilience and confidence;

how co-curriculum and volunteering opportunities can contribute to character education;

how to promote equality of opportunity within the delivery of character education.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces the concept of character education and emphasises the importance of values, attitudes, skills and behaviours. It also considers the implications of character education within the context of school responsibilities. Additionally, the chapter provides guidance in relation to the key challenges that schools are likely to experience with their planning and delivery of character education. There is some discussion on the importance of character education and this is situated within the requirements of the statutory guidance. The chapter also considers character education in relation to positive school culture and the role of the leadership team is outlined. Some guidance is provided to support schools to develop learners’ resilience and confidence and we emphasise the importance of co-curriculum and volunteering opportunities. Finally, the chapter emphasises the role that schools play in promoting equality of opportunity and some guidance is provided to support teachers and school staff.

WHAT IS CHARACTER EDUCATION?

Character education aims to develop a set of values, attitudes, skills and behaviours that support personal development and contribute to positive long-term outcomes (Walker et al, 2017). Specifically, character education aims to support students to develop moral and civic values. This enables them to understand the difference between right and wrong and to understand their responsibilities as citizens to the local and global communities in which they live.

There is no correct approach to delivering character education in schools. However, it is important that school leadership teams view the development of character as being central to the culture, values and vision of the school (Walker et al, 2017). It is also important to adopt a whole-school approach (Walker et al, 2017). This ensures that specific character virtues are consistently reinforced in all classrooms. It is also important that teachers and leaders exemplify the character virtues that they want students to develop (Walker et al, 2017). This has implications for the way in which adults speak to students.

Some students live their lives surrounded by adults in their families and in the wider community who do not demonstrate positive character virtues. It is important to be aware that the values that the school seeks to promote may be in direct conflict with the values that are consistently demonstrated in homes and communities. In this case, students may have to reframe their character traits when they are operating within the context of the school. Some students will internalise the positive character virtues that the school promotes, and these will shape their identities as they develop. Others will learn to ‘switch’ the positive character virtues on when they are in school, even though they may adopt a different set of virtues when they are outside the school. The key challenge for schools is therefore how to address the dissonance between the character virtues that are promoted outside of school and those that are promoted within schools. More significantly, however, is how schools support students to internalise the positive character virtues that are essential to long-term success so that they consistently demonstrate them, believe in them and subsequently reject the negative character virtues that they may be exposed to outside of school.

CRITICAL QUESTIONS

How might social and cultural contexts influence the development of character?

Why do you think that character education has become a policy priority?

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER

Although character education is not identified as a separate strand within the statutory guidance (DfE, 2019a), it is embedded within specific themes. Within the strand of ‘respectful relationships’, specific character traits are addressed. These character traits include trust, respect, honesty, kindness, generosity, boundaries, privacy, consent, conflict management and skills in reconciliation and ending relationships. In addition, respect for authority is identified as a key character trait. Character education is therefore part of Relationships Education in secondary schools.

The statutory guidance states:

A growing ability to form strong and positive relationships with others depends on the deliberate cultivation of character traits and positive personal attributes, (sometimes referred to as ‘virtues’) in the individual.

(DfE, 2019a, p 20)

Evidence suggests that character education supports the development of a positive school culture, leads to a more conducive learning environment and leads to improved behaviour and attendance and motivation (OECD, 2015; Walker et al, 2017). It also leads to positive long-term outcomes including facilitating access to higher education (Walker et al, 2017) and promotes good mental well-being (DfE, 2019b; Taylor et al, 2017). Character education therefore drives equality and social mobility. Research has found that specific character traits are associated with positive outcomes. These are summarised below.

High self-efficacy is associated with better performance and greater persistence and motivation. Self-efficacy is a prerequisite to investing sustained effort in a task.

High levels of intrinsic motivation are associated with greater persistence and achievement.

Good self-regulation, including the ability to delay gratification, is associated with greater attainment.

High levels of resilience are associated with greater wellbeing.

Mindsets are malleable and supporting students to develop a growth mindset may result in small to medium size improvements in later performance.

(Gutman and Schoon, 2013)

Character is a complex concept and multifaceted. Important aspects include:

the ability to stay motivated by long-term goals, including the ability to invest effort and persevere with something despite setbacks;

the development of moral attributes or virtues;

the acquisition of social confidence, including the ability to make persuasive arguments, listen to others and demonstrate good manners and courtesy toward others;

the ability to appreciate the importance of long-term commitments, for example by demonstrating commitment to a relationship, a vocation, a faith or world view or a commitment to the local community.

(DfE, 2019b)

The Education Inspection Framework (Ofsted, 2019) embeds character education within the strand of ‘personal development’. Inspectors will evaluate the curriculum and the school’s work in supporting learners to develop their character, including their resilience, confidence and independence.

CRITICAL QUESTIONS

What character virtues are important to you?

What factors shaped the development of your own character?

Research demonstrates that students who are focused on intrinsic-related goals for engaging in an activity show greater motivation, more persistence and higher achievement compared to students who are focused on extrinsic-related goals (Gutman and Schoon, 2013). Studies have shown that the ability to self regulate is a significant predictor of attainment (Moffitt et al, 2011). There is also evidence that teaching students to develop appropriate social behaviour improves attainment (Durlak et al, 2011).

DEVELOPING A POSITIVE SCHOOL CULTURE

School leaders are responsible for creating the school ethos and culture. The school ethos should embody a strong vision for character and personal development (DfE, 2019b). The importance of positive virtues and character traits should be embodied within the school vision. Desirable character traits that might be included in the vision are:

belief in achieving goals;

persevering with tasks;

honesty and integrity;

courage;

humility;

kindness and generosity;

trustworthiness;

a sense of justice;

self-respect and self-worth.

(DfE, 2019a)

Encouraging students to undertake social action, active citizenship and voluntary service to others are excellent approaches for developing these character traits.

DEVELOPING POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR

Research suggests that childhood self control predicts achievement and adjustment outcomes, even in adulthood (Gutman and Schoon, 2013). Good behaviour is an essential characteristic of effective schools. It creates the conditions for effective learning and it prepares students for life after leaving school. Good discipline also ensures that schools are safe places for all members of the school community. An essential aspect of character education is to promote positive social behaviours so that students can learn effectively and are well prepared for adult life.

Students should be taught about the importance of demonstrating respect towards others, regardless of their differences. Demonstrating respect is a fundamental characteristic of an inclusive society. Teaching students about good manners and courtesy ensures that they can conduct themselves appropriately within educational, social and workplace contexts. This is particularly important in cases where students do not live in families or communities where these virtues are demonstrated.

DEVELOPING RESILIENCE AND CONFIDENCE

Students who demonstrate resilience can recover from adverse situations and this can support them in achieving goals. However, the concept of resilience is problematic because resilience is relational. Essentially, this means that a person’s ability to be resilient is influenced by their relationships with others. Students are more likely to demonstrate greater resilience if they have access to social support networks that can offer emotional and practical support during challenging times. Access to supportive teachers, peers, family and community support can enable individuals to be resilient during times when they experience adversity. In addition, resilience is also contextual. Resilience varies from one context to another. It is therefore possible to demonstrate greater resilience in some contexts than it is in others.

The same also applies to confidence. An individual’s confidence can vary across social, academic and other domains and it can vary between different contexts. It is also influenced by one’s self worth and self efficacy. Self efficacy is an individual’s appraisal of their own competences within specific domains, whereas self worth is an individual’s overall view of themselves based on evaluations that others (peers, family, teachers) have made on them. Both self efficacy and self worth contribute to overall self esteem. Self esteem is therefore a two-dimensional construct. It is possible for both aspects to be high or low or for one to be high and the other to be low. Overall, self esteem affects confidence.

Resilience and confidence are dynamic traits and are therefore malleable. Supportive school environments can buffer against the effects of negative environments within homes and communities which detrimentally impact on both resilience and confidence. Students can be taught to develop their resilience, for example, by teaching them to recover from ‘failure’ or teaching them to be resilient to feedback. Exposure to teachers who empower students can dramatically improve a student’s confidence. In addition, the experience of academic success is a vital ingredient for improving confidence and self esteem. As students begin to realise that they are capable of achieving, their self efficacy starts to improve. Students can be taught to demonstrate social confidence in specific situations, even if inwardly they do not feel confident. They can be taught how to appear confident but more importantly a skilled teacher can provide students with genuine confidence by getting them to believe in themselves.

Access to a well-designed curriculum helps students to develop confidence. Knowledge and skills should be sequenced correctly. This enables students to make sense of new subject content because correct sequencing provides them with the foundational knowledge and skills upon which new content can be accommodated. In addition, access to a broad and rich curriculum which provides students with cultural capital is essential for developing social confidence and social mobility. One way of achieving this is to develop their vocabulary and knowledge so that students from all social backgrounds can experience and benefit from the same opportunities.

CASE STUDY

STUDENT LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

YEARS 9 AND 10, PSHE

A secondary school created a student leadership team to support the school with the planning and organisation of key events. The student leadership team also supported induction and transition events for students joining the school as well as organising charitable activities and fundraising events. The team was made up of students from all year groups in the school. The students in Year 12 and Year 13 held senior roles and worked with school staff to develop a peer mentoring programme. These senior students worked with school staff to train students in Years 9 and 10 to become peer mentors for students in Year 7. The peer mentors provided a range of types of support including academic support and social and emotional support. The peer mentors were recruited to the role following an application and interview process which was led by the senior students with support from school staff. Through this process, students were required to demonstrate that they had the necessary character traits to be a good peer mentor. This process was again led by the senior students, but it was monitored by school staff who maintained final responsibility for the decisions that were made. The peer mentors completed a training programme that included guidance on how to be a good listener and when to refer cases to an adult in the school. The training involved role play exercises to support the peer mentors to respond to and communicate with others and to determine when it was appropriate to ask an adult for advice. The peer mentors were also taught about their role in relation to confidentiality and ensuring that they did not promise secrecy to the students they were working with. Following successful completion of the training course, each peer mentor was allocated a caseload of Year 7 students. Mentors met with their mentees during specific timetabled slots at break times, during lunch time and after school as well as at times during the registration period. The programme was co-ordinated by the PSHE lead teacher who monitored the impact of the programme and discussed improvements and changes three times per year.

DEVELOPING THE CO-CURRICULUM

As part of the character education curriculum, schools should ensure that there is strong provision for co-curricular activities. A well-planned co-curriculum can build social confidence and self esteem and improve motivation, attendance and academic outcomes for students (DfE, 2019b). Research demonstrates that participation in outdoor adventure programmes has positive effects on the psychological, behavioural, physical and academic outcomes of young people (Gutman and Schoon, 2013).

Activities may include access to sporting or other physical activities, performance, the arts, volunteering, debating, cooking and participation in service. This is not an exhaustive list. The critical point is that schools should ensure that all students can participate in the co-curriculum, including those who are the most disadvantaged. Barriers to participation may include the direct costs of activities and to address this, schools should subsidise activities to prevent financial constraints becoming a barrier to equal opportunities. The co-curriculum should be designed to enable young people to compete and perform. These opportunities improve social confidence and self esteem.

DEVELOPING AND PROMOTING THE VALUE OF VOLUNTEERING

Volunteering empowers students by enabling them to make a positive contribution to their local community. It helps students to develop a civic mindset and provides them with an opportunity to engage in meaningful work. Students can participate in a range of volunteering opportunities. These may include fundraising activities for local and national organisations, protecting the environment or providing services to elderly people in the local community. Research findings suggest that volunteering produces moderate effects for academic outcomes and small effects for non-cognitive outcomes including social skills, self perceptions, and motivation (Gutman and Schoon, 2013).

CASE STUDY

VOLUNTARY SERVICE

YEARS 7 AND 8, PSHE

A group of Year 12 and Year 13 students in a school created a student leadership team with the support of school staff. The student leadership team decided that they wanted to support students to access volunteering opportunities in the local community. The student leadership team created a working group to support the initiative and they invited local charity representatives into the school to discuss whether they could support the provision. A list of volunteering opportunities was drawn up and from this Year 7 and Year 8 students were able to pick the volunteering opportunities that interested them. The school’s careers adviser supported this process of selection to ensure that students were choosing volunteering placements that aligned with either students’ interests or aspirations. The careers adviser held overall responsibility for monitoring the programme and overseeing communication between the working group and the local charities. The list of volunteering opportunities has continued to expand, and the school now works with more charitable partners than it ever has before. The school has also committed to the programme by identifying and dedicating time within the existing curriculum to enable students to engage with voluntary opportunities. The school also supports students wishing to access these opportunities during the evening, at weekends or during school holidays. It has introduced a process for supporting parents to discuss these opportunities with the charity directly.

DEVELOPING EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

School leadership teams need to identify the barriers to participation in relation to some of the activities outlined in this chapter. Barriers could include the cost and timing of activities, lack of parental support and lack of confidence in students. Leadership teams should consider how these barriers will be addressed so that students from all backgrounds have opportunities to participate, particularly in the co-curriculum. The co-curriculum provides students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds with cultural capital by developing a broader range of interests, knowledge and skills. Access to a co-curriculum and volunteering improves social confidence and self esteem, which contribute to social mobility.

SUMMARY

This chapter has introduced the concept of character education and it has outlined the responsibility of schools in relation to the promotion of values, attitudes, skills and behaviours. It has also considered the implications of character education within the context of school responsibilities and statutory guidance. Guidance has been provided to support schools with the challenges that they may face with the planning and delivery of character education. There has also been some discussion on the importance of character education and we have considered character education in relation to positive school culture and the role of the leadership team. Some case study material has been offered to support your reflection of existing practice and we have encouraged you to consider the benefits of co-curriculum and volunteering. The chapter has also outlined how teachers and school staff can promote equality of opportunity.

FURTHER READING OR SOURCES OF FURTHER INFORMATION

Department for Education (DfE) (2019) Character Education Framework Guidance. London: DfE.

National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) (2017) Case Study Report Leading Character Education in Schools. [online] Available at: www.nfer.ac.uk/media/2067/pace02.pdf (accessed 6 February 2020).

The Jubilee Centre (2017) A Framework for Character Education in Schools. [online] Available at: https://uobschool.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Framework-for-Character-Education-2017-Jubilee-Centre.pdf (accessed 6 February 2020).

In addition to the reports and guidance published by these organisations, it is also helpful to consider the discussion offered by www.teachersresourceforce.com. This website outlines the benefits of teaching students about character education. It also offers some practical guidance to support you to teach character education in your classroom and it provides links to additional resources that you may find valuable. The specific blog is available at: www.teachersresourceforce.com/charactereducation.html (accessed 6 February 2020).