One size doesn’t fit all: Exploring complexity in young people’s perceptions of Character Education a critical realist case study

Kernaghan, Peter

Abstract

This study is a Case Study (CS) informed exploration of a pupil’s eye view of Character Education (CE), in a CS school. It is intended to find out what they think of CE claims it can be ‘caught, taught or sought’ (Jubilee Centre, 2018).

It considers the policy context at a time when the UK has seen a proliferation of CE institutions, and mechanisms of administrative which increasingly seeking to exercise power. CE is pervasive, continuing, and increasingly coercive e.g. Ofsted 2019 criteria and UKGov guidance. My living contradiction is with the rising CE knowledge structure orthodoxy, authoritarian policy actors translating the perceived guidance leaving students with a lack of ‘voice’.

The approach methodology presumes a Critical Realist (CR) meta-theoretical perspective. The methods of data collection used 183 semi-structured online questionnaires, 17 interviews and 3 focus groups with students. Thematic Analysis of the CS findings are presented as a thick narrative description, and logic models.

The research findings confirm first, the significance of ‘keystone’, and ‘moral dyad’ control beliefs, the pluralism of the mind thesis, and student’s ingroup status both as cognitive majority or minority affect virtue acquisition. Second the situational influence on virtue acquisition varied by social settings e.g. family, work place and especially peers. Third virtue acquisition is affected by students protecting the integrity of the self, the experience of instrumentalised learning and deflationary and inflationary mechanisms. Inductively, virtue acquisition I discovered was affected by views on the coherence of CE, the status of moral claims and trait robustness; Further virtue acquisition was affected by beliefs about virtue as fated, its teachability, levels of virtue literacy, fears over summative virtue acquisition measurement.

The study has implications for schools considering the extent and type of CE they may adopt given the wider policy context. An alternative 10-point CR CE model is recommended given deficiencies of the current CE policy community orthodoxy.

Citation

Kernaghan, P. One size doesn’t fit all: Exploring complexity in young people’s perceptions of Character Education a critical realist case study. (Thesis). University of the West of England. Retrieved from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6873519

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 23, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 12, 2022
• Keywords: Character Education, Critical Realism, Intellectual Virtue, Case Study
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6873519
• Award Date: Jul 12, 2022