This article investigates the theoretical link between two approaches to civic character education: Service Learning and the Just Community, given that the two share a strong democratic ethical component. Based on historical research and bibliographical review, we show that John Dewey's pragmatism forms a theoretical foundation of both approaches.…

There are many reasons to worry about shame in moral development. Shame can be employed for bad ends, such as manipulation and making others feel powerless. Shame is often associated with denial and hiding behaviors, social phobia, and anxiety. It is also not a motivation suitable for performing virtuous actions. This article argues that,…

Mindfulness is an umbrella term for a set of practices and strategies related to attention and non-critical awareness of our thoughts. Mindfulness is currently having a moment in popular culture and in clinical psychology for its many perceived benefits. However, there are reasons to worry about whether certain commitments and strategies of…

Richard Pring (1938-2024) was the first holder of a Chair in Education at the University of Oxford and the Editor of the present journal from 1986 to 2001. This article pays tribute to his legacy in the field of educational philosophy. After reviewing briefly some well-known recurring themes in Pring's educational philosophy, such as his busting…

There could hardly have been a more influential twentieth-century philosophical essay than Elizabeth Anscombe's 'Modern moral philosophy', in which she condemned the prevailing and competing ethics of duty and utility of her day and urged moral philosophers to abandon the search for any general conception of 'morality' in favour of return to…

In the context of the recent revival of virtue ethics, the notion of character formation under the rational guidance of Aristotle's notion of "phronesis," or practical wisdom, has been exalted as the principal aim of moral education. However, this is not unproblematic insofar as the promotion of Aristotelian "phronesis" seems…

The world is facing crises at the personal, community and national levels, disconnection from traditional value systems and loss of a guiding moral compass. While religion is certainly not the only basis for personal and societal values, religion can provide a moral system that is sorely needed. In Islam, great wisdom can be found in the holy…

The analysis undertaken in this article pertain to the challenge faced by education, which consists of overcoming the negative aspects of contemporary individualism, such as the building of instrumental relationships by people maturing in a culture permeated with it. Consequently, there is limited responsibility taken for the other people…

Since the 1990s, education for the virtues of citizenship has become widespread in the United States and United Kingdom. It is intended to inculcate virtues such as courtesy, respect and truthfulness in school children. This essay defends education for the virtues of citizenship against two criticisms. According to the first, which might be called…

We appreciate and respond to Cokelet's thoughtful criticisms of our book. First, he points to deliberative forms of practical wisdom as objectionable to anti-rationalist's. In response, we point to non-conscious (yet complex) forms of deliberation that occur as individuals automatically process and respond to virtue-relevant stimuli. Second,…

Is character education flawed as an approach to values education? A 2013 article answered that question in the negative and defused ten common objections against character education as 'myths'. The aim of the present article is to revisit those objections and consider the evidence that has accumulated since 2013. After a brief historical and…

In this article I develop ideas for supporting character education through sociology and virtue ethics philosophy. A combination of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of habitus together with (neo) Aristotelian virtue ethics philosophy is used to promote a critical form of character education--one that accents the individual as well as the social context…

Inspired by Aristotle and Goffman this article considers how the study of virtue acquisition may be pursued through an observational theorising about social interactions in institutions. Adapting Goffman's and Harré's notions of moral order and moral career, it proposes character education to be a dialogic process requiring negotiation between…

Values education is an accepted field of study in the world today. The cultural ties that values education has due to its nature are also reflected in the studies carried out. Based on the necessity of determining the trend of values education studies in the world, this research aims to bring a bibliometric view to the field. For this purpose, 256…

This article extends an invitation to fellow civic engagement educators and others to reflect on how an eclectic and personal selection of great works of literature raises and illuminates some of the critical questions surrounding the concept and practice of civic engagement. Through literature we can explore the implications of various ideas and…