From Virtue to Grit: Changes in Narratives around Character Education from 1985-2016

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 23. Morality, Trust, and Character Education

Abstract

Despite the recent buzz around character education, there has been little sociological research interrogating the trends in this area (Duckworth 2016; Stokas 2015). I begin to fill this gap by examining the argumentation around character education between 1985-2016, asking how these narratives have changed over time and what these changes reveal about moral priorities over this time period. After analyzing 603 Education Week and New York Times articles mentioning character education, I find that character education is consistently proffered as a solution to changing social problems. Whereas from 1985-2003, advocates for character education argue that it would solve behavior problems, starting in 2003, advocates argued that teaching character would improve academic performance. By analyzing this shift between argumentation around teaching character, this article provides sociological insight into changing moral priorities and potential unintended consequences of said changes. It also contributes to the study of social problems by demonstrating the analytical utility of analyzing solutions to social problems rather than focusing solely on the problems themselves.

Author

• Emily Handsman, Northwestern University