Character education in schools and the education of teachers

Abstract

This article explores student teachers' attitudes to and experience of character and values education in schools and looks at their assessment of the opportunities provided by schools for the development of character. The data from over 1000 student teachers in two universities indicates that while they are overwhelmingly in favour of developing their skills in the area of moral development, their opportunities to do this are uneven and are dependent on their course and their teaching placement school. Whilst character education is seen as part of citizenship education in the school curriculum in England, the data indicates that it is not part of the formal curriculum of teacher education.