"Education with character" is the buzzphrase included in the British government's Green Paper, "Schools: Building on Success". James Arthur offers a cross-disciplinary exploration of moral education and character-shaping in education. The establishment of citizenship education as a compulsory subject has been accompanied by the British government's policy of "promoting education with character". Schools are identified as having a crucial role to play in helping to shape and reinforce basic character traits that will ultimately lead to a better society. This radical new policy is explicitly linked to raising academic standards and to the needs of the emerging new economy. This book provides an introduction to character education within the British context by exploring its meanings, understandings and rationale through the perspective of a number of academic disciplines. The author examines character education from philosophical, religious, psychological, political, social and economic perspectives to offer a more detailed understanding of character education and what it can offer.
He also considers how British schools can implement character education successfully and what lessons we can draw from the American experience.