To educate citizens and citizen-leaders for our society: Renewing character education in universities

Abstract:

Seventy-five years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights promoted a vision of education “directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strength-ening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms" (United Nations, 1948, 26.2). In 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took this further, stating in SDG 4 that “the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes required by citizens to lead pro-ductive lives, make informed decisions and assume active roles locally and globally in facing and resolving global challenges can be acquired through education for sustainable development and global citizenship educa-tion” (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2016, p. 14). What might the adoption of this educational mission involve for higher education? And what does it mean in a chal-lenging global context following the COVID pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine? This paper argues that the current global tu-mult should catalyse reflection as to the purpose and content of higher education. It focuses on the importance of education for “values and attitudes”, emphasized as an essential component of global citizenship and leadership education in the rubric of SDG 4. It pro-poses a return to the philosophical categories of “character” and “virtue”, arguing that the societal orientation of global universities and their aspiration “to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society” (Harvard College, 2022) necessitates a renewal of theoretically rigorous, pedagogically effective, and practically relevant character education.

Año de publicación:

2023

Keywords:

• character education
• University Students
• higher education
• virtue ethics

Fuente:

scopus