| Character education prepares children to respond positively to real-life experiences involving ethical reasoning. Local government decides whether character education is included in the mandated curriculum. There is no established national standard for teaching character education; therefore, teachers decide how to integrate their own practices into the curriculum. The purpose of this critical instance case study was to explore teachers' perceptions of character education, and to formulate a framework to underpin its incorporation into the curriculum. Information was collected using the Character Education Implementation Questionnaire, completed by twenty-three public elementary school teachers at one public elementary school in Florida. Interpretive methods were applied, including content analysis of the teachers' responses, in order to extract underlying themes to address five research questions. Five themes were extracted, entitled Concepts and Activities, Satisfaction, Concerns, Administrators, and Approaches. The teachers in this study endorsed an eclectic mix of concepts, activities, and approaches based on their own ideas. Much creativity, and the ability to adapt character education to the curriculum, was revealed. Student-centered approaches were effective, including discussing ethical behavior of participants in historical or literary stories and real-life experiences, providing rewards for good character, creating a character pledge for each student, and asking students who behave inappropriately to reflect on their character. The majority of teachers were; however, dissatisfied, implying that current character education programs were inadequate. Character education was perceived to be under-resourced. Most teachers complained there was insufficient time to integrate character education into the scheduled curriculum. Negative responses from seventeen teachers, indicated that lack of support for character education by administrators was a major concern. A model of character education is outlined, based on the theory that character education should be infused throughout the school curriculum and be strongly supported by administrators. Recommendations for future research are made with respect to (a) the development of character education in the curriculum; (b) greater awareness of formal character education programs; (c) more administrative support; (d) greater parental involvement; and (e) the development of a research-based framework to underpin character education. |
