Educating for virtue: How wisdom coordinates informal, non-formal and formal education in motivation to virtue in Canada and South Korea

ABSTRACT

How do different forms of education contribute to value preferences? Clearly, informal education through personal experiences that shape one’s sense of identity and frame cultural expectations and opportunities (as indexed by culture, gender and age-cohort), non-formal education through religious traditions and formal state-mandated education all contribute to value preferences in culturally-specific ways. However, wisdom should allow people to coordinate culturally-specific education in ways that promote prosocial values. Our study considered the relative strength of four value-orientations from Schwartz’s Personal Values Questionnaire and of 15 core virtues among 189 participants from Canada and South Korea; half were older and half younger adults. 101 were emerging adults (aged 18–25) and 88 were retired older adults (aged 60–80). Multivariate regression analyses show that, although all three forms of education influenced value orientation in culture-specific ways in both Canada and South Korea, formal education was critical to cultivating the wisdom needed to coordinate and adjudicate between different values so as to live well.

KEYWORDS:

• virtue
• wisdom
• age
• culture
• education
• religion

Disclosure statement

This study was affiliated with University of Toronto and Bowling Green State University.

Notes

1. The configural invariance model shows whether the measurements have the same factor structures among the two groups (Koreans vs. Canadians). The metric invariance test helps to investigate whether the two groups had the same factor loadings. The configural invariance test and at least partial metric invariance test should be established to ensure that interpreting the results will be meaningful (Vandernberg & Lance, 2000).

2. Compared to the remaining sample, self-identified Christians (r = .49, p < .001) and Buddhists (r = .26, p < .001) tended to score higher on religious beliefs, whereas Atheists tended to score lower on religious beliefs (r = −.77, p < .001), core values (r = −.17, p = .017) and self-transcendence (r = −.15, p = .040) than Christians and Buddhists.

3. Religious group (being Christian or Buddhist with Atheists as the reference group) was not significant after controlling for religious beliefs. Therefore, we did not include religious group in the multivariate regression models.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Templeton Religion Trust [311678].

Notes on contributors

Michel Ferrari

Michel Ferrari is Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development and head of the Wisdom and Identity Lab at the University of Toronto. His lab explores personal wisdom in people of different ages (from children to the elderly) in different countries around the world. Dr. Ferrari received his BA from the Liberal Arts College of Concordia University and his MA and PhD from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He was a Postdoctoral Associate with Robert Sternberg at Yale University and a Research Associate with Michelene Chi and Kurt VanLehn at the Learning research and Development Center (LRDC) of the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Ferrari has co-authored or co-edited twelve books and numerous scholarly articles and book chapters.

Hyeyoung Bang

Hyeyoung Bang, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor, and teaches Educational Psychology, Human Growth & Development, and Cross-Cultural Human Development in the School of Educational Foundations, Leadership, and Policy at Bowling Green State University (Ohio, USA). She utilizes quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and Q methodology in her research. Her research agenda includes wisdom in the development of self; morality, virtue, and contemplation in life; acculturation, resilience, and motivation, and schooling international and minority students in the US.

Monika Ardelt

Monika Ardelt, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology, a Founding Faculty Member and Member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Spirituality and Health at the University of Florida, and a core member of UF Mindfulness. Her research focuses on successful human development across the life course with particular emphasis on the relations between wisdom, religion, spirituality, aging well, and dying well.

Zhe Feng

Zhe Feng, M.Ed., is a graduate from the Department of Applied Psychology & Human Development (APHD) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Her research focuses on the development of personal identity and beliefs from cross-cultural, aesthetic and experience-based perspectives.