ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 begins with the question: is good character ‘taught’ or ‘caught’? The approaches to character education examined in Part I assume that character should be taught explicitly as part of the school curriculum using techniques with pre-specified, ‘predictable’ outcomes. However, this chapter questions the notion of teaching about character isolated from the uncertain interpersonal and social contexts within which character develops. As the philosopher Paul Ricoeur asserted, a person’s life unfolds through a ‘thousand contingencies’, necessitating a shift in focus from what is predictable to what is morally acceptable. This raises a number of important questions about character education. For example, how can teaching be ethical if the teacher’s job is to modify and shape character? How can we tell the difference between moral education and indoctrination? Is the expectation of a ‘match’ between pedagogical aims and outcomes misguided? This chapter considers these questions and presents a pedagogy of interdependence illustrated in seven practical workshops on the themes of: the family; moral aloneness in the age of social media; optimism; sharing; authority; exclusion; and indoctrination.
