In a time of increasing accountability, school leaders are besieged with many challenges to meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations. Leadership for the development of good character can often be overlooked in lieu of competing priorities (Starratt, 1991). Analyzing data from a 4-year study, this article considers one principal's…

Catholic and charter schools share some similarities, including a strong college-preparatory focus, small class sizes, strict discipline, and high requirements for parental involvement. Yet, these 2 school types are also distinguished by differences in their secular and religious missions. Using data from over 200 interviews in 14 Catholic and…

The importance of a healthy K-12 education system cannot be overstated. In today's world it is a prerequisite to social justice, democratic community, a thriving economy, and a flourishing society. Likewise, the importance of the school principal (Louis & Murphy, 2018; Smylie et al., 2020), for it is the principal who is most responsible for…

The 2015 final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015a) states that educational institutions are part of the problem of systemic colonialism that persists across the country. Racism against Indigenous peoples is apparent across Canada, as in the United States, Australia, and elsewhere. In this context, we share our…

Character education and environmental/ecological education (EEE) are not often discussed in the same circles of discourse. However, in recent studies of EEE, several teachers have identified the exploration and enactment values pertinent to EEE, with some even naming character education as a potentially helpful framework. In this work, the authors…

In this article, Aaron Zimmerman defines epistemological virtues as the manner in which knowledge and truth are discussed. For example, consider the following questions: (1) How does one judge whether or not something is true? (2) Who serves as the arbiter as to whether or not something is true? (3) What are the ethical implications of truth…

Although there is no end of ethics courses offered at colleges and universities, many believe that neither the professoriate nor their institutional leaders has ever been collectively and authentically committed to shaping the moral formation of students. A considerable literature has emerged over the last decade alleging a widespread…

Emotional well-being is gaining importance within educator preparation, supporting how cognitive traits are vital but not adequate for optimal professional success. For this reason, it is imperative that the whole realm of human learning be reinforced by elements of holistic education often neglected. The purpose of this article is to: (1)…

Aspiring leaders need guidance, and there is no shortage of advice on the qualities required for successful leadership. Moral philosophers in the Western tradition have tended to gravitate toward the moral end of the spectrum. Seeking to dominate others can certainly work, but too often it supports leadership styles that are short-sighted and…

Despite renewed academic interest in virtue ethics and character education, institutions of higher education have largely neglected the character education of university students. This article seeks to make two contributions to the theory and practice of character education within the university, with a particular focus on postgraduate students.…

The goal of this article is to explore relations between adolescent values, interests in activities, and their bonding to school. This article presents survey research findings that examine 1,928 sixth- and seventh-grade students' responses to survey prompts about 15 terminal values adapted from Rokeach's (1973) theory of values, prompts about 11…

Recent trends in education reform have brought renewed attention to performance character strengths such as grit, growth mindsets, and self-control. In this article, we explore how secondary teachers (Grades 5-12) in a variety of school types understood character education generally, and performance character education specifically. Research…

A developmental model linking professionalism and character growth is implemented at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (USMA) through its programs and policies. The current study used growth-modeling techniques to examine developmental relationships between metrics of professional development and performance outcomes at USMA and assessed…

Although whether a teacher of philosophical ethics should explicitly endorse any theory or position has been a topic of decades-long debate, there is little empirical analysis of the effects of instructor advocacy or neutrality on students' moral development. Our study represents a step toward closing that gap. Using a quasi-experimental design,…

In the classical tradition of education that emerged from the ancient Greek paideia, there is a productive pedagogical sequence of mixed methods for virtue education. First, stories of heroes are paired with physical training. Virtue concept-learning comes next, and strategies involving imitation are adjusted as a student intellectually matures.…