To what extent could a literature-based approach to character education improve pupil understanding of virtue

Thesis

This is the presentation of a proposed study into the role of literature as an aid to develop character for secondary school children. Building on existing research this study expects that the literature will have a positive effect in providing valuable material for research into character development. The Background Character education as a field within educational research became popular in the mid-twentieth century. With the rise of positive psychology at the beginning of the twenty-first century there has been renewed interest in the area. Within the United Kingdom there have been two main centres of study into character: The Jubilee Centre, at the University of Birmingham and the Narnian Project, at the University of Leeds. These two centres have recently taken to the study of fictional literature as a resource to help with the development of virtue within children. The basis of using literature has long been a rich source of inspiration within religious communities and so this study, being held within the context of a Christian school, aims to add to these studies. Method The innovation of this study is in three parts: biography, diversity, and measurement. The study exclusively uses biographies as the basis of the literature as this sits within the historical culture of the school. The selection of the material aims to be inclusive of gender and cultural background so as to provide approachable role models to the pupils. This study also argues that a Life History approach can provide an alternative and rich source to data collection. The proposal of Life History is not a suggestion that it is a better approach than that of previous studies. The use of self-reporting, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, have all had success. This study proposes the Life History approach as a supplementary method of understanding the success of literature-based models of character development. In this way this study is successful in developing this important field in educational research. Findings This study was unable to collect data due to the situation with COVID-19 and the lockdown of schools. However, using the findings of the two studies above and a wealth of literature in the field this study lays out clear hypotheses and methodology to demonstrate the value of such an approach to the existent literature.

Authors: Allanson, E

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-7r0qneerg
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: MLT; MLT2020
• Subjects: Education