C0nference
Educating Character Across Differences: Cultivating Communities of Character in the University
Jesmyn Ward—author, professor, and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient—will kick off a major conference hosted by the Educating Character Initiative (ECI) on behalf of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. The conference, Educating Character Across Differences: Cultivating Communities of Character in the University, will be held December 5-7, 2024, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.
Educating Character Initiative Webinar Series: How to Educate Character in the University
Join us for our series of five ECI online workshops on how to educate character in the university, moderated by Jennifer Rothschild, Senior Scholar of Character Education with the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest University. Once registered, you will also be registered for the following workshops in the series:
Session 3: Teaching for Intellectual Virtues: Integrating Character Education with Academic Teaching and Learning
Session Leader: Jason Baehr, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University
Description: For educators interested in forming the character of their students, it can be difficult to know how to integrate this concern with the everyday business of teaching academic content and skills. A focus on intellectual virtues – understood as the character attributes of good thinkers and learners – offers a promising way of addressing this challenge. In this session Jason Baehr, an expert on intellectual virtues and their cultivation, will provide an overview of intellectual virtues and identify some practical steps teachers can take to support their students’ growth in these qualities.
Date, Time, and Location: Thursday, April 25, 2024, 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET on Zoom
Session 4: Cultivating College Students’ Civic Character in the University Setting
Session Leader: Diane Ryan, Associate Dean for Programs and Administration and Affiliate Associate Professor in the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Studies and Human Development and Sunah Hyun, Senior Researcher at Tisch College
Description: During this session, Diane Ryan and Sunah Hyun will share a brief overview of the Tisch College of Civic Life to provide examples of their programs and best practices designed to foster students’ character development. The programs aim to equip students with the values, knowledge, and skills to address social issues and create meaningful change. Tisch College fosters a supportive community to enhance engagement at Tufts University and beyond. The session will also include an explanation of the evaluation framework and the development of objectives specific to different programs.
Date, Time, and Location: Thursday, May 16, 2024, 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET on Zoom
Session 5: Panel: Educating Character Across Differences
Panelists:
– Robyn Ilten-Gee (Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University) considers ways educators can facilitate moral decision-making and reasoning through social justice education and digital media production. She understands character to be a dynamic set of systems that grow and interact with our ever-changing contexts.
– Chrystal Johnson (Associate Professor of Social Studies Education, Purdue University) works in the fields of character education, citizenship development, and the social studies. Her current research interests focus on race, culturally consonant pedagogy, character development, civic education, and schools of choice.
– Ashley Floyd Kuntz, (Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Florida International University) emphasizes the connection between conceptions of the good life and character education on college campuses. As faculty at the nation’s largest Hispanic-Serving Institution, Dr. Kuntz participates in a multicultural, multinational, multilingual community with numerous opportunities to cultivate intellectual curiosity and humility.
Date, Time, and Location: Tuesday, June 11, 2024, 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET on Zoom
Educating Character Initiative Webinar Series: Character Program Spotlight
Join us for a series of workshops shining a spotlight on excellent programs in educating character, co-sponsored by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues:
Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership (Ivey Business School)
Session Leaders: Dusya Vera, Executive Director, Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership, Professor, Strategy & General Management; & Gerard Seijts, Professor, Organizational Behaviour; former/founding Executive Director and Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership
Date/Time: May 15, 2024 at 10 a.m.
Notes: Part of the Flourishing Student International Webinar Series, in partnership with the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues
Civic Humanism Centre for Character and Professional Ethics (University of Navarra)
Session Leaders: Emma Cohen de Lara, Director of the “Leadership as Service Program. Developing Purpose and Character”, University of Navarra & José M. Torralba, Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs, University of Navarra
Date/Time: July 2, 2024 at 11 a.m.
Notes: Part of the Flourishing Student International Webinar Series, in partnership with the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues
Course Design Workshop
Character Across the Curriculum: Equipping Faculty to Design Courses for Educating Character
The Character Across the Curriculum workshop aims to equip faculty to:
- identify clear and measurable character-related learning outcomes,
- design engaging learning activities and assignments that promote students’ growth toward those outcomes,
- develop effective and ethically sound assessments of learning activities’ efficacy in promoting such growth, and
- integrate these outcomes, activities, and assessments into existing or new syllabuses in ways that are appropriate for, and in service of, the disciplinary goals of the course.
The workshop will be led collaboratively by members of the Program for Leadership and Character with expertise in character theory and development, course design, and character assessment and measurement among undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.
Date/Time: July 8-10, 2024 at Wake Forest University
Previous Events
Session 1: How to Build the Institutional Capacity to Educate Character: Lessons Learned at Wake Forest University
Session Leaders: Michael Lamb, Executive Director of the Program for Leadership and Character, and Kenneth Townsend, Executive Director of Leadership and Character in the Professional Schools, Wake Forest University
Description: In this session Michael Lamb and Kenneth Townsend shared their experiences building institutional capacity for educating character by sharing insights from their work at Wake Forest University. They reflected on lessons learned while establishing the Program for Leadership and Character as they looked back on their efforts to engage diverse stakeholders, build faculty and staff partnerships, and support the character development of students. Watch their presentation here, or below:
Listen to the entire webinar presentation and a question-and-answer session below:
Session 2: Seven Strategies for Cultivating Virtue in the University
Session Leader: Michael Lamb, Executive Director of the Program for Leadership and Character, Wake Forest University
Description: In this session Michael Lamb will provide a theoretical framework and practical examples for seven strategies of character development: (1) habituation through practice, (2) reflection on personal experience, (3) engagement with virtuous exemplars, (4) dialogue that increases virtue literacy, (5) awareness of situational variables, (6) moral reminders, and (7) friendships of mutual accountability. Based on work at Wake Forest and with the Oxford Character Project, these seven strategies offer potential guidance for educators who aspire to develop character education programs in their institutions.
Listen to the entire webinar presentation and a question-and-answer session below:
Oxford Character Project (University of Oxford)
Session Leaders: Dr. Edward Brooks, Executive Director of the Oxford Character Project & Anjali Sarker, Programme Manager Oxford Character Project
Date/Time: February 29, 2024
Notes: Part of the Flourishing Student International Webinar Series, in partnership with the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues