Teaching the Heart: Character Education as a Solution to Changing Social Problems, 1985-2016

• In Event: 228 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 08. Culture and Media

Abstract

Character education—curriculum explicitly designed to teach a set of values or attributes—has come in and out of fashion in the United States public education school for many years. As it is a nonessential, nonacademic subject area, proponents of character education must advocate for it by providing a compelling justification for including this kind of curriculum in the school day. In the mid-to-late 1980s, character education experienced a surge in popularity, as advocates argued that teaching character could stymy the rise in value-based behavioral problems such as increased teen pregnancy and drug use rates cropping up at this time. Although many programs and curricula were popular during this time, no one kind of character education was fully institutionalized in the public school system. Then, starting in the early 2000s, proponents began touting character education as a solution to a different problem: academic failure. A connection between good character and academic success implies that academic failure means having bad character, an implication that is reminiscent of the culture of poverty hypothesis sociologists have distanced themselves from (Small, et al 2010). By examining the 638 Education Week articles that mention character education over this time period, this paper examines how and why character education persists as a solution to vastly different social problems, as well as the potential implications of this persistence.

Author

• Emily Handsman, Northwestern University