Imagining Educational Futures: Virtue Ethics for Character Education: Current Research Trends and Implications

On 21 January 2021, the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (NIE NTU) held the third instalment of the “Imagining Educational Futures” webinar. This time, the webinar explored the theme “Virtue Ethics for Character Education: Current Research Trends and Implications” and was attended by a total of 85 participants. 

The research and interest in virtue ethics has grown over the years, particularly given its implications on cultivating more agentive approaches to character education. The webinar touched on both the Aristotelian and Confucian perspective on virtue ethics and its implications for character education. The speakers in this webinar also uncovered common ground between Eastern and Western philosophy, which is the importance of the role that the community plays in shaping the character of the student.

The speakers, in order of appearance, were:

1. Professor James Arthur, School of Education, Director of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, University of Birmingham who spoke on “How to Contextualize Character Virtues”;

2. Professor Sungmoon Kim, Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong, who shared on “Virtue, Dignity and Rule of Law: A Confucian Perspective”; and

3. Professor Charlene Tan, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, who presented on “Virtue Ethics in Education: The Example of a Respectful Junzi”.

Dr Dennis Kwek, Centre Director of the  Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice and Assoc Dean (Strategic Engagement) at the  Office of Education Research, NIE NTU was the host for the session, and Assoc Prof Suzanne Choo, from the  English Language and Literature Academic Group and the Asst Dean at the Office of Teacher Education, NIE NTU, moderated the engaging panel discussion at the end of the session.

Watch the recording of the session here: