ABSTRACT
No explanation of character education can be complete without a consideration of its sociological aspects. Character education, concerned as it is with ethical behaviour, is pre-eminently social. In sociology the idea of character is to do with the socialization of an individual and the mores of society. It highlights the connections between social understanding and character education, and it has much in common with social psychology. Sociologists approach the formation of character by asking questions about the social structure of society and institutions, about the arrangements in schools and how these influence the acquisition of moral values and moral development. The build-up of habits is viewed as a process of socialization. Schools are seen as social organizations which transmit moral codes. The concept of virtue is understood exclusively as a social phenomenon which is acquired through teacher/pupil relations, the social organization of the school and the relationship between the school and the wider community. Character is the measure of this process of socialization. The adequately socialized child is the ‘good child’. Character is relative to a particular culture and sociologists are, in the main, not concerned about any particular morality.
