ECI Research & Scholarship
The ECI Research and Scholarship Team studies character and how it is shaped in higher education. They examine the factors shaping students’ development, the consequences of such development, and the ways in which educators seek to cultivate students’ development. The team aims to reinvigorate conversations about character, particularly in higher educational settings, and to broaden those conversations to include a broader range of perspectives.
Guiding Questions
- What does it mean to have good character, and how do we know if it is present?
- What are college students like and (how) do they differ from college-aged non-students?
- How do different groups of people (e.g., students and educators across institutions) conceive of character?
- What are the consequences of character growth in higher education?
- Does good character lead to valuable outcomes for students?
- Does good character lead to valuable outcomes for communities?
- What are the primary drivers of, and barriers to, students’ character growth?
- What kinds of environments or cultures support or thwart character development? How?
- What kinds of programs, activities, or pedagogies promote character development?
- What do higher education stakeholders think about character education?
- What do faculty members think about intentionally developing their students’ character?
- Do students support character education efforts at their institutions?
The Communities of Character Studies
The Research and Scholarship Team is currently working on a mixed-methods research project, called the Communities of Character Studies, conducted in collaboration with Heart + Mind Strategies. The overarching aim of this project is to examine how higher educational institutions seek to promote student’s character development and, more generally, how communities within and beyond higher education contribute to, or perhaps detract from, character development. The project includes two phases: an initial, qualitative study, involving interviews with students, staff, and faculty, and a second, quantitative study involving a longitudinal survey of college students and young adults who are not enrolled in higher education.
ECI Research & Scholars Team Members
Michael Prinzing
Research and Assessment Scholar
Emily Hunt-Hinojosa
Director of Research and Community Impact
Juliette Ratchford
Senior Research Fellow
Aaron D. Cobb
Director of Collective Learning
Elizabeth Whiting
Scholar of Character Pedagogy
Jennifer Rothschild
Executive Director of the Educating Character Initiative
Sammy Salazar
Research and Resources Coordinator, Communities of Impact
Publications from our Staff
We continue to publish peer-reviewed academic journal articles demonstrating the impact of our work at the Educating Character Initiative and seek to further the field of character education.