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22-03-2017 | Empirical Research

The Varieties of Character and Some Implications for Character Education

Auteur: Jason Baehr

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence | Uitgave 6/2017

Abstract

The moral and civic dimensions of personal character have been widely recognized and explored. Recent work by philosophers, psychologists, and education theorists has drawn attention to two additional dimensions of character: intellectual character and “performance” character. This article sketches a “four-dimensional” conceptual model of personal character and some of the character strengths or “virtues” proper to each dimension. In addition to exploring how the dimensions of character are related to each other, the article also examines the implications of this account for character education undertaken in a youth or adolescent context. It is argued that “intellectual character education,” which emphasizes the development of intellectual virtues like curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual courage, is an underexplored but especially promising approach in this context. The relationship between intellectual character education and traditional character education, which emphasizes the development of moral and civic virtues like kindness, generosity, and tolerance, is also explored.

vorige artikel Theoretical and Empirical Bases of Character Development in Adolescence: A View of the Issues

volgende artikel Investigating Adolescents’ Critical Consciousness Development through a Character Framework

As this description suggests, the educational scholarship on performance character draws heavily on work in positive psychology and related areas of research, for example, on work by Peterson and Seligman (2004) and Angela Duckworth and Patrick Quinn (2009). It also aligns with work on what philosophers sometimes refer to as “structural virtues” (Adams 2006) or “virtues of will power” (Roberts 1984).

In fact, this point is trickier than it might seem. For instance, getting clear on what exactly counts as a moral good is a serious challenge, one that may be impossible to settle in a non-stipulative manner. Moreover, some philosophers have conceived of moral virtues as including some self-regarding qualities—e.g., temperance. This complicates thinking about moral virtues as the character strengths of a good neighbor. For more on this, see Baehr 2011, Appendix.

It bears noting that the “intersection” of intellectual virtues, on the one hand, of moral and civic virtues, on the other, is somewhat different than the intersection of intellectual virtues and performance virtues. Moral and civic virtues cannot function as intellectual virtues in quite the same way that performance virtues can. This is because moral and civic virtues by definition involve a characteristic motivation different from that of intellectual virtues (whereas, with performance virtues, the corresponding motivation is “open”).

Of course, the notion of “performance character” could be given a broad construal, such that it covers any dimension of character that is not moral or civic. Such a construal, however, would seriously dilute the notion of performance character. Further, it would run afoul of the plausible idea that intellectual virtues, arising as they do from a positive orientation toward “epistemic goods,” gain their status as such at least partly on account of an element of virtuous or admirable motivation (whereas, by definition, performance virtues derive their status as virtues on other, non-motivational grounds). For more on this point, see Baehr 2011, Chs. 6-7.

Thanks to Ben Kotzee for raising this question.

One can, of course, challenge the idea that education should concern itself primarily with academic practices and goals. However, even if the scope of education were broadened so as to incorporate a greater concern with students’ moral or civic formation, say, this would not negate the importance of their epistemic formation, and so would do little to undermine the unique educational significance of intellectual virtues.

David Shields (2011) briefly discusses this approach, as does Seider (2012, pp. 231–32). For a fairly comprehensive account of what “intellectual character education” looks like in practice, the best works are (Ritchhart 2002, 2015). See (Baehr 2015) for a downloadable resource guide that draws from Ritchhart’s work and integrates it with work in virtue epistemology.

Adams, R. (2006). A theory of virtue: Excellence in being for the good. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Baehr, J. (Ed.) (2016a). Intellectual virtues and education: Essays in applied virtue epistemology. New York, NY: Routledge.

Baehr, J. (2016b). Is intellectual character growth a realistic educational aim? Journal of Moral Education. doi:10.1080/03057240.2016.1174676.

Baehr, J. (2015). Cultivating Goods Minds. Available at: http://intellectualvirtues.org.

Baehr, J. (2013). Educating for intellectual virtues: From theory to practice. Journal of the Philosophy of Education, 47, 248–262.CrossRef

Baehr, J. (2011). The inquiring mind: On intellectual virtues and virtue epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Battaly, H. (2015). Virtue. Cambridge, MA: Polity.

Battaly, H. (2006). Teaching intellectual virtues: Applying virtue epistemology in the classroom. Teaching Philosophy, 29/3, 191–222.CrossRef

Berkowitz, M. (2014). “Morality Before Performance,” Does Character Matter? Richard Reeves (ed.) (Brookings Institute Press). Available at: http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/10/22-morality-before-performance-berkowitz.

Berkowitz, M., & Bier, M. (2007). What works in character education. Journal of Research in Character Education, 5/1, 29–48.

Berkowitz, M., & Puka, W. (2009). Dissent and character education. In M. Gordon (Ed.), Reclaiming dissent: Civics education for the 21st century (pp. 107–130). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

Conway, D. (2000). The rediscovery of wisdom. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRef

Davidson, M. (2004). Developing performance character and moral character in youth. The Fourth and Fifth Rs: Respect and Responsibility, 10/2, 6.

Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the short grit scale (Grit-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91/2, 166–174.CrossRef

Hazlett, A. (2016). The civic virtues of skepticism, intellectual humility, and intellectual criticism, in (Baehr, 2016a): 71–93.

Hurka, T. (2001). Virtue, vice, and value. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Kohn, A. (1997). How not to teach values: A critical look at character education. Phi Delta Kappan, 78/6, 428–439.

Kotzee, B. (Ed.) (2014). Education and the growth of knowledge: Perspectives from Social and virtue epistemology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Lickona, T. (2014). “My 45-year journey as a moral and character educator: Some of what I think I’ve learned,” an invited lecture at the jubilee centre for character and virtues, June 25, University of Birmingham, England.

Lickona, T. (1991). Educating for character: How our schools can teach respect and responsibility. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Lickona, T., & Davidson M. (2005). Smart and good high schools: Integrating excellence and ethics for success in school, work, and beyond (Cortland, NY: Center for the 4th and 5th Rs/Washington, DC: Character Education Partnership).

Nussbaum, M. (2010). Not for profit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Porter, S. (2016). A Therapeutic approach to intellectual character formation in the classroom, in (Baehr, 2016a): 240–248.

Ritchhart, R. (2015). Creating cultures of thinking: The eight forces we must master to truly transform our schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Ritchhart, R. (2002). Intellectual character: What it is, why it matters, and how to get it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Roberts, R C. (1984). Will Power and the Virtues. The Philosophical Review 93/2, 227–247.

Roberts, R., & Wood, J. (2007). Intellectual virtues: An essay in regulative epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Seider, S. (2012). Character compass: How powerful school culture can point students toward success. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Shields, D. L. (2011). Character as an aim of education. Phi Delta Kappan, 92/8, 48–53.CrossRef

Siegel, D. (2012). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. 2nd edn. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Slote, M. (2001). Morals from Motives. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Snow, N. (Ed.) (2015). Cultivating virtue: Perspectives from philosophy, theology, and psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sosa, E. (2007). A virtue epistemology: Apt belief and reflective knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Taylor, C. C. W. (1990). Aristotle’s epistemology. In S. Everson (Ed.), Epistemology (pp. 116–142). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tough, P. (2012). How children succeed: Grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Zagzebski, L. (1996). Virtues of the mind. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef

Titel: The Varieties of Character and Some Implications for Character Education
Auteur: Jason Baehr
Publicatiedatum: 22-03-2017
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence / Uitgave 6/2017
Print ISSN: 0047-2891
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-6601
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0654-z

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