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ABSTRACT
As part of a revival of interest in character education, English schools are required to teach the new ‘three Rs’: resilience; respect for ‘fundamental British values’; and responsibility for one’s own well-being. School inspectors evaluate children’s resilience, whilst the Department for Education has offered financial incentives to schools that ‘instil’ mental toughness and ‘grit’. However, this approach may prove counterproductive because it relies on teaching about desirable character traits and neglects the interpersonal relations within which ‘character’ develops. This paper argues for an alternative ‘fourth R’ of character education, based on Honneth’s theory of recognition. As an empathetic connection to others arising from their intrinsic worth, recognition precedes cognition and a detached, neutral stance. Recognition of others as a prerequisite for moral action provides a foundation for an approach to character education that takes account of intersubjective relationships in schools and the wider social context within which character is shaped.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. To maintain the anonymity of the schools and Ofsted inspectors referred to in the extracts from Ofsted Reports cited in this paper, I have refrained from providing links to the reports on the Ofsted website.
2. There is no scope in this paper for a detailed review of these theorists. It is, however, important to note their limited engagement with the complexities of socio-political and economic contexts within which character develops. For example, Goleman’s (Citation1998, p. 5) Emotional Intelligence model was first developed from research on factors determining ‘outstanding’ work performance in corporate environments. Seligman et al.’s (Citation2009, p. 294) model of ‘positive education’ counters arguments of those who ‘believe that well-being comes from the environment’ by presenting the following ‘paradox’: ‘Almost everything is better now than it was 50 years ago: there is about three times more actual purchasing power, dwellings are much bigger, there are many more cars, and clothes are more attractive … there is more education, more music, and more women’s rights, less racism, less pollution, fewer tyrants, more entertainment, more books, and fewer soldiers dying on the battlefield … . Everything is better, that is, everything except human morale.’
3. Honneth’s later work on educational implications of Hegel’s theory of ‘ethical life’ (Honneth, Citation2010) has been criticised for a one-sided, ‘positive’ interpretation of Hegelian dialectics (Hanhela, Citation2014a).
4. ‘Fundamental British values’ include: democracy; the rule of law; individual liberty; and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. They were introduced in 2011 in the UK government anti-terrorism ‘Prevent’ strategy (DfE, Citation2014b). In line with the objectives of ‘Prevent’, all schools in England have a duty to ‘actively promote’ these values.
5. A table summarising forms of recognition and disrespect and their corresponding dimensions of personality can be found in Honneth (Citation1995, p. 129).