Character education has been a central thread running through my professional life for many years. In my day-to-day work at school, this has taken practical form through establishing the Good Citizens Club, developing a Peer Mediation initiative, leading residential trips and working closely, day-to-day, with students to help them navigate conflict, responsibility, and moral choice in real situations. These experiences have shown me that character is not something taught through experiential learning activities or assemblies alone, for example, but something shaped slowly through habits, relationships, and everyday decisions.
Alongside this practical work, I am currently undertaking doctoral studies in Ethical Leadership, which has given me a deeper theoretical lens through which to examine what schools are really doing when they claim to be developing character. Reading Understanding Character Education: Approaches, Applications and Issues has helped me connect classroom practice with philosophical foundations, particularly around the ideas of values and virtues.
In this post, I am sharing my notes and reflections from the book as a way of thinking more clearly about what meaningful character education looks like in practice, and why it matters for schools that want to educate the whole person, not just the academic learner.
The term character derives from the Ancient Greek word χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr). Originally, kharaktḗr meant a tool for engraving or stamping, and by extension the mark or imprint left behind. Over time, the meaning evolved to refer to the distinctive mark impressed upon a person, namely their moral qualities, habits, and disposition.
This etymology is interesting here because it aligns closely with modern understandings of character as something formed gradually through repeated actions, not merely a set of traits one possesses. The Jubilee Centre for Character Education defines character as a ‘set of personal traits or dispositions that produce specific moral actions, inform motivation and guide conduct’ (Jubilee Centre, 2017:2).
All schools, whether consciously or unconsciously, impact on the qualities and dispositions of children and young people. In general terms, character education is the conscious process of cultivating positive behaviours, which can be referred to as character virtues or character strengths.
The expanded definition of character education provided by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues (2017:2) suggest that:
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 they act for the right reasons, such that they become more autonomous and reflective in the practice of virtue.
Character education is not optional. All schools, families, friends, peers, neighbourhoods, communities, and various media, have an impact on character, whether consciously or unconsciously, positively or negatively.
When considering conscious and deliberate character, it is necessary to look at the neo-Aristotlian perspective, in which character education is concerned with the development of virtues. Virtues are the positive traits of character that are morally worthwhile, teachable, and help us to live a good life. We commend those traits when we see them in others, praising them for being just, kind, honest, brave and so on.
Two core ideas of the Aristotelian approach to character education is that of Phronesis and Eudaimaonia:
Phronesis (practical wisdom)
This is the ability to make good judgments in real situations. It is not just knowing what is right in theory, but knowing what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, taking into account people, context, and consequences.
In plain terms: phronesis is good sense guided by values.
Eudaimonia (human flourishing)
This refers to living well over a whole life, not simply feeling happy or successful. It means becoming the kind of person who lives with purpose, virtue, and fulfillment.
In plain terms: eudaimonia is a life that is going well because it is lived well.
How they fit together
Phronesis is the inner compass that guides daily choices; eudaimonia is the destination those choices aim toward. Character education, for Aristotle, is about developing the wisdom to act well so that a person can ultimately live a flourishing life.
It is interesting to note that the concepts of practical wisdom and human flourishing were, until fairly recently, generally only discussed in philosophical circles. Nowadays, these terms are increasingly used to frame and guide research and practice conducted within schools.
The language of character
While values and virtues can sit along one another in the vision and mission of schools, their difference is important:
Values are what a person believes is important.
They are ideas and priorities that guide their thinking and decisions.
Virtues are deeper and show how those values are embodied in the person.
They are stable habits of action and character, shown through what the person consistently does in real situations.
Put simply, values describe what matters to a person.
Virtues show who the person has become.
Key principles for character education
The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues (2017:3) has identified eleven key principles for character education:
- Character is fundamental: it contributes to human and societal flourishing;
- Character is educable and its progress can be assessed holistically;
- 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, driven by committed leadership that enables pupils 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 elsewhere in and out of school;
- Character should be developed in partnership with parents, families, employers, and other community organisations;
- Character education is about fairness and each child has a right to character development;
- Positive character development empowers pupils and is liberating;
- Good character demonstrates a readiness to learn from others;
- Good character promotes democratic citizenship and autonomous decision-making.
Having a clear set of principles helps with the implementation of character education in schools.
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.’
That being said, given the complexity of how character develops, it is very difficult to measure the holistic ‘character’ of an individual whether at a particular moment or over a given period of time.
Nevertheless, schools should certainly seek to evaluate their character education in ways other than focusing on the effectiveness of specific interventions. Schools can gather evidence from students, staff, families, governors, and the local community to understand how their culture and ethos support character development. They can also support students to self-evaluate their character, using reflection to identify strengths and areas to improve. The Jubilee Centre for Character Education and Virtues’ Character Education Evaluation Handbook for Schools (Harrison et al., 2016a: 17-18) provide advice on the evaluation of character education in and by schools:
- Undertake formative not summative evaluation: Evaluation should be undertaken for educational purposes to support the building of character in children and young people. It should not be undertaken to give them character grades.
- Value and understand the importance of professional judgements: The professional judgements of teachers are crucial to successful evaluation.
- Use mixed methods to triangulate the evidence to get the fullest possible picture: To gain the best picture of character and character education, multiple sources of evidence should be drawn upon.
- Use multiple voices in the evaluation: Where possible, as many people in the school community should have a ‘voice’ in the evaluation.
- Recognise and acknowledge the limitations of evaluating character.
The Character of the Teacher
Teachers are not necessarily remembered for their subject knowledge. It is generally the character of the teacher that is recalled, either fondly or contemptuously.
Although parents and carers are usually children’s primary educators, other role models such as peers, wider family, teachers, and mentors can strongly shape children’s personal and social development. Teachers influence far more than academic learning: through daily interactions, kindness, support, and the standards they set, they help pupils develop character and self-identity.
However, teacher training and accountability pressures often prioritise subject knowledge, technical skills, and test outcomes, which can lead teachers to view their role as mainly academic. This risks neglecting the moral and ethical dimensions of teaching, even though education is widely understood to include pupils’ personal and moral development. In fact, many people enter teaching because they want to make a positive difference in children’s lives, support their wellbeing, and help them become good people.
Because teaching is inherently moral work, teachers regularly face complex situations where the “right” action is not obvious. Navigating these dilemmas requires judgement and practical wisdom, developed through experience and shaped by the teacher’s own character. For this reason, teachers are widely seen as key role models, a view also recognised in England’s Initial Teacher Training guidance, which states that teachers can influence pupils’ attitudes, values, and behaviours.
What Makes a Good Teacher
Research literature suggests that a “good teacher” is defined not only by technical competence and subject knowledge, but by moral qualities such as kindness, compassion, patience, humour, and trustworthiness, because these traits build strong relationships and positive learning environments.
How Pupils Define a Good Teacher
Pupils tend to agree: they commonly describe good teachers as those who are kind, listen, help, and can be trusted.
Mission Statements and the Reality of School Culture
At a whole-school level, many schools publish aspirational commitments (for example, developing responsible citizens or a love of learning), but mission and vision statements do not always reflect the lived culture and ethos. Strong mission statements clarify what the school stands for and the kind of people it aims to develop.
Practical Wisdom and Making Good Choices
Within character education, practical wisdom supports pupils (and teachers) to choose the right actions for the right reasons, from simple rule-following to complex judgement in unique situations.
From Extrinsic Rewards to Intrinsic Motivation
Character education aims to develop pupils’ understanding and reasoning, but also emotions and intrinsic motivation, so that good behaviour is valued as worthwhile in itself rather than performed only for rewards or to avoid sanctions.
Evidence suggests that character strengths such as perseverance, prudence, and self-regulation are associated with positive behaviour for learning, while low self-control strengths are linked with disruption and rule-breaking. Programmes are also associated with improvements in attitudes and social skills and reductions in negative behaviours such as referrals, lateness, and suspensions.
A practical method highlighted is “character coaching,” which encourages teachers to use specific virtue language instead of generic praise, helping pupils connect actions to enduring character traits.
Three Character Coaching Moves: Praise, Guidance, Correction
Character coaching typically involves three strategies: praise (spotting and reinforcing virtues), guidance (teaching how virtues apply across contexts), and correction (supporting reflection on impact and better choices, rather than simply telling off).
Using Rewards Carefully Within Character Education
The text cautions that heavy reliance on rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation, especially for younger children, but recognises that carefully used rewards can help pupils begin positive behaviours and, over time, internalise the satisfaction of doing the right thing. In a character-based approach, behaviour policies and home-school agreements are designed to support reflection, intrinsic motivation, and opportunities to make amends, with more emphasis placed on noticing and reinforcing good behaviour than on punishing poor behaviour.
Restorative Conversations: Putting the “Why” at the Centre
Adrian McLean (Severn Academies Education Trust, UK) describes shifting away from a common “zero-tolerance” behaviour model, arguing that automatic punishments for every rule breach do not foster practical wisdom or long-term self-regulation. Instead, Severn Academies built a character-based approach where staff model good character and pupils are taught shared expectations through the 3Rs: Ready (to listen and learn), Respectful (of peers, staff, and environment), and Responsible (for safety and learning). Over time, pupils develop greater ownership of their behaviour, but the trust emphasises this is not a quick fix.
The catalyst for change was a rising number of detentions linked to poor self-regulation. Staff and pupil feedback, alongside behaviour data, revealed a key problem: adults assumed pupils already knew how to self-regulate, but many pupils did not understand why their actions were an issue, so they felt unfairly punished. To address this, the trust invested heavily in training staff so that restorative conversations were understood and used consistently across the school community.
At the core is a semi-structured restorative conversation that replaces immediate sanctions with dialogue designed to surface the moral and civic dimensions of behaviour. The process requires calm, empathetic listening, without interruption or judgement, and shared respect from both adult and pupil. The pupil is supported to take responsibility for impact, while the adult listens carefully to the pupil’s perspective and helps them express thoughts and feelings appropriately.
The Six Restorative Questions
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What has happened?
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What were you thinking at the time?
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Who has been affected?
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How have they been affected?
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How did this make people feel?
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What should we do to put things right or make things better in the future?
Using the same questions consistently helps staff and pupils explore the underlying “why,” shifting attention from rule-breaking to values, character traits, and repair. One example involved a pupil not completing work; through the questions, it emerged the pupil was stuck and unsure what to do. A staff member used the discussion to focus on the school values of determination and initiative, helping the pupil identify practical strategies for next time.
McLean reports that pupils previously labelled “difficult” benefited notably, showing improved self-esteem and belonging because they felt heard. Building on this success, the trust began piloting “character conversations”, discussions that help pupils reflect on how well they are developing the school’s values and how they can strengthen them through practical wisdom.
Character Education Beyond the School Gates
Community-based experiences can be a powerful extension of character education because they allow pupils to practise virtues in real life, not just talk about them in school. When pupils take part in social action (often called service-learning), they are placed in situations where character becomes visible: being honest and trustworthy, contributing time and talents for the common good, and showing courage when something is not right. Well-designed social action creates meaningful experiences followed by reflection, helping pupils turn “good intentions” into habits.
Importantly, social action is not simply about learning in the community or about the community. It is about learning for the community, identifying genuine needs and taking action that aims to make a positive difference. Along the way, pupils develop real-world skills, build relationships, and gain a clearer sense of purpose and responsibility.
While social action has often been discussed in relation to “youth” in general, there is growing interest in how it can support younger children too. This chapter therefore sets out: (1) key definitions and approaches to social action across primary and secondary ages, and its educational benefits; and (2) practical principles for planning effective experiences, including how to work with community partners and how to connect what happens in school with meaningful action beyond it.
Young people do not necessarily understand social action in the same way as adults, and their views can vary widely (Arthur et al., 2015a). Body et al. (2020), in their research on charitable giving with primary school children, found that children often do not frame charity primarily as “raising money.” Instead, they tend to see it as everyday acts of kindness, a lived expression of behaviours and values rooted in kindness, fairness, and empathy, which they link to the building blocks of social justice and democracy.
Service-Learning as Social Action: Action, Reflection, and Citizenship
Social action can take many forms and may focus on people and/or the environment. It can operate at local, national, or global levels, and involve social change and/or political engagement to varying degrees. In the United States, this work is more often described as service-learning rather than “social action.”
A widely cited definition comes from Eyler and Giles (1999), who describe service-learning as experiential education in which learning happens through a repeating cycle of action and reflection, experience deepens understanding, and understanding leads to more effective action. In practice, this means pupils work with others in their communities, combining intellectual commitment, moral purpose, and civic/political understanding to address real issues thoughtfully. Scholars such as Wildemeersch (2009) emphasise that social action is sustained through ongoing action, reflection, communication, and negotiation, linking character development to pupils’ formation as citizens. In this sense, it aims to balance personal growth with community development, drawing on experiential learning traditions associated with thinkers like John Dewey and David Kolb.
A substantial research base suggests social action can bring personal, educational, and societal benefits. Hecht (2003) captures this practically: through planning, service, and reflection, pupils learn to anticipate challenges, respond to the unexpected, take action, and connect what they do to wider life and academic learning.
However, Thompson and Metcalfe (2020) note that while links between youth social action and character development are increasingly discussed, it is still not fully clear which character strengths are most developed or most valued by young people themselves. In their study of 300 #iwill Ambassadors across six cohorts (2014–2019), they found that pupils most consistently reported gains in confidence and community awareness, with leadership and communication appearing frequently from 2015 onwards. Overall, “performance virtues” were reported most often, but the steady prominence of community awareness suggests pupils also recognise a strong civic dimension to their development.
An Aristotelian approach helps connect several strands here, recognition, student voice in social action, and how schools teach practical wisdom, into one coherent picture.
Recognition and the Move from External to Internal Motivation
From an Aristotelian perspective, recognising pupils who show exceptional commitment in social action can be educationally useful. Awards and public praise introduce role models for others to emulate and can motivate participation, even if the first impulse is “for the badge.” Over time, however, the deeper aim is that pupils begin to value social action for its own sake, because it benefits others and shapes their own character. At that point, the behaviour becomes more natural and “easy,” the way a virtue feels once it is genuinely developed.
When Social Action Becomes Activism: The Ethical Challenge for Educators
That said, social action raises difficult questions about who initiates the project and how far it should go. In some cases, social action becomes activism, and this can create tension. The point is not that pupil activism is inherently problematic, there are strong examples of student activism challenging real social and economic inequalities, but that it requires careful educational judgement. The key question for teachers becomes: Are we genuinely developing pupils, or are we directing them toward our own ends?
Hart’s Ladder: Avoiding “Participation” That Isn’t Real
Roger Hart’s Ladder of Participation is a practical tool for thinking ethically about this. At the bottom are forms of non-participation:
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Manipulation (pupils are used to serve adult goals)
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Decoration (pupils are present for show)
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Tokenism (pupils appear consulted but have no real influence)
Hart’s ladder highlights a moral risk: pupils can become means to an adult agenda, especially when they have not yet developed the critical awareness needed to understand the issue. Higher rungs represent genuine participation, where pupils’ voices and interests are respected and where decision-making becomes more shared, sometimes adult-initiated with shared decisions, sometimes pupil-initiated and directed, and ideally pupil-led with meaningful adult partnership. This does not require teachers to be passive, but it does require that pupils’ development remains central. As Campbell puts it, ethical teachers should be moral agents and moral models, not moralistic activists.
Teaching Character Through Stories, Dilemmas, and Exemplars
Alongside social action, schools commonly teach character through stories, which are powerful because they engage imagination and emotion rather than forcing compliance. Stories are also practical: they already sit naturally within primary and secondary curricula, and can be used across subjects. Scholars argue that literature may be one of the most potent routes for moral character education, and research suggests story-based approaches can develop pupils’ understanding of virtue terms and moral reasoning. Teachers can deepen this through moral dilemmas that prompt discussion such as:
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What challenge did the protagonist face?
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Which virtues are relevant here?
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Do virtues conflict, and which should take priority, and why?
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What would you do, or advise a friend to do?
Similarly, pupils learn from moral exemplars, both famous figures and people closer to home. However, there can be a “distance problem”: if an exemplar feels too far removed from a pupil’s life, it may inspire admiration but not imitation. Research suggests that attainable, relevant exemplars can be more effective, so schools should choose examples that resonate with their own community as well as broader history.
Practical Wisdom as a Long-Term Aim
The final thread is practical wisdom itself. Some philosophers argue that practical wisdom cannot fully develop until later adolescence, but others suggest it develops unevenly across childhood through experience, trial, error, and reflection. A helpful way to frame the school’s task is to educate pupils in the spirit of practical wisdom, not assuming children will master it quickly, but consistently guiding them to notice what matters, think critically, articulate reasons and emotions, and reflect on actions so they can learn and grow.
A spiral curriculum approach fits this well because character does not develop in straight lines: virtues interact (for example, generosity and emotion regulation strengthen each other), and context affects how well virtues are expressed. Even if practical wisdom remains an aspirational goal, schools already do much of the groundwork when they teach children to reflect, reason, and improve. The character education task is to bring these elements together so pupils not only understand what is good, but increasingly have the capacity, and motivation, to act on it.
Concluding thoughts…
The Greek root kharaktḗr reminds us that character is an imprint made over time, and my experience with the Good Citizens Club and Peer Mediation has reinforced that this imprint is shaped most powerfully through the small, repeated moments of school life: how children are spoken to, how conflict is handled, what is noticed and praised, and what is quietly tolerated. Whether intentionally or not, we are always teaching children something about what matters and about the kind of people they are becoming.
The neo-Aristotelian lens helps to clarify what we are aiming for. Virtues are cultivated behaviours, and the long-term goal is not compliance but practical wisdom: the ability to read a situation clearly, feel and reason appropriately, and act well for the right reasons. That is precisely why the moral character of the teacher matters so much. Students might forget the lesson content, but they rarely forget whether the adults around them were fair, calm, kind, trustworthy, and willing to listen. When accountability pressures narrow teaching to performance alone, the risk is a subtle loss of the profession’s ethical centre.
What has also struck me is the importance of moving beyond a “school-only” model. Social action and service-learning can turn abstract virtues into lived experience, but only when students have meaningful voice and ownership. Hart’s ladder is a useful reminder that not all “participation” is genuine, and that well-intentioned projects can drift into tokenism or adult direction. The educational task is to hold a careful line: supporting students to act in the world without using them to act out adult agendas. In Campbell’s terms, the goal is to be moral agents and moral models, not moralistic activists.
Finally, there is a practical coherence running through everything here. Whether through restorative conversations that keep the “why” at the centre, character coaching that names specific virtues instead of vague praise, stories and moral dilemmas that exercise imagination and judgement, or carefully designed social action that connects personal growth with community contribution, the most effective approaches share a common thread. They treat pupils as developing moral agents, capable of reflection and growth.
For me, this is the point of character education: helping young people become the kind of people who can choose well when it matters, not because they are being watched, but because they can see what is good and feel compelled to live it. If schools are serious about educating the whole person, then character education cannot remain at the level of occasional initiatives. It has to be built deliberately into culture, relationships, language, and everyday practice, so that over time students not only learn about virtue, but gradually acquire the habits, judgement, and motivation that make a flourishing life possible.