Kylie Trask Kerr

This paper argues that character and virtues education is shaped by students’ understandings of educational purpose, and that philosophy offers a distinctive role in making those purposes explicit, discussable, and educative. Drawing on an early-stage mixed-methods case study in a culturally diverse Australian school, we report findings from a study involving 494 student respondents. Students largely framed the purpose of schooling in credentialling terms, with future study and employment functioning as a dominant interpretive horizon for curriculum and value. In addition, when asked what part of school helps them become a ‘better person’, students rarely nominated the humanities, including philosophy. We suggest that this gap matters because virtues language is received through students’ existing aims narratives, whether or not schools intend it. Building on existing character education frameworks, including the Jubilee Centre’s taught, caught and sought, we propose a context-attentive approach in which the humanities in general, and philosophy in particular, can help students and school communities examine the purposes of education, reflect ethically on purposes, and connect character education with practical wisdom.

Dewey’s vision for schooling can perhaps be described as an early positive education, a term now attributed to programmes derived from positive psychology. Positive psychology’s goals for education share many of Dewey’s ideas about community-mindedness and the role of education in nurturing citizenship. Having emerged from positive psychology, however, current programmes under the umbrella of positive education differ in that they are grounded in science rather than philosophy and are sometimes criticised for being morally neutral and individualistic. In this paper, we argue that the work of Dewey may address these challenges by contributing an understanding of the pragmatic connection between philosophy and psychology, as well as a more social view of education through occupations.

Positive education seeks to enhance wellbeing in schools by establishing a culture where success is measured in terms of happiness. This goal aligns well with Dewey’s educational philosophy, which espouses the importance of a positive school experience in the nurturing of good citizenship and the creation of a harmonious community. Dewey’s ideas and those expressed within the field of positive education, however, diverge on some aspects of their approach to education and, importantly, in their perspective on the role of philosophy in science. This thesis explores the possibility of a Deweyan contribution to positive education and advances the argument that embracing Dewey’s ethics and epistemology will augment efforts to create a culture of wellbeing in schools. Specifically, this thesis argues that Dewey’s work may contribute a perspective on the complementary role of philosophy and science; suggest an experiential pedagogy that contends with the nature of subjective experience; contribute a social focus that prioritizes the common good; and provide a unified philosophical stance on the purpose of schooling. These contributions may, however modestly, address concerns expressed by writers from within and outside of positive psychology about challenges such as a need for a more philosophical approach, the effects of psychology in education, the difficulties with avoiding normative content in order to remain scientific, the problem of subjective experience, the perceived focus on individualism, and the implication that positive psychology may be a fad. Ultimately, by creating a dialogue between positive education and the work of Dewey, this thesis seeks to elicit thinking about the possibility of a Deweyan contribution to both the theory and practice of positive education.