Cultivating virtue literacy in visual arts classes: Reflection on a fine-arts intervention aimed at moral education in a lower-secondary school in Iceland

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I discuss the results of focus-group interviews with teachers and pupils in Iceland who participated in an intervention in visual arts classes aimed at cultivating virtue literacy, critical thinking, and moral deliberation through pupils’ creativity and discussions regarding moral topics. Pupils and teachers generally welcomed the ethical approach of the project, but thematic analysis revealed challenges to implementing moral education in a traditional school setting. The results suggest that although the value of the arts for moral reflection and deliberation is widely recognised, interventions for moral education need to consider the existing national educational framework, general educational aims, local school culture and the diverse characteristics of pupils and teachers.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual arts
• moral education
• virtue literacy
• educational aims

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2023.2290977

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/1641/character-education/resources/knightly-virtues

2. https://www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/1676/character-education/resources/teaching-character-through-subjects

3. Harold Lloyd‘s climbing scene was not a stunt but made with cinematic tricks and devices. However, it is easy for an unsuspecting audience to believe it was real, especially considering that the movie was made 100 years ago, decades before the digital revolution of modern cinematography.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ingimar Ólafsson Waage

Ingimar Ólafsson Waage is a visual artist, assistant professor and programme director in the Department of Arts Education at Iceland University of the Arts.