Understandings of character and virtue education in Riga: main findings
2020
Surikova, S., University of Latvia, Riga (Latvia) | Pigozne, T., University of Latvia, Riga (Latvia) | Fernandez-Gonzalez, M.J., University of Latvia, Riga (Latvia) | Stokenberga, I., University of Latvia, Riga (Latvia)
During the last decade, moral education issues are widely discussed in Latvia and worldwide by practitioners, researchers and policy makers. Different understandings of character and virtue education are present in this debate, and this could blur the quality of communication between school leaders, teachers and parents in this relevant aspect of pupils’ education. The aim of this study was to investigate the diverse understandings of character and virtue education in Riga city, the capital of Latvia. For answering this question, an online mixed-method survey was conducted from March to May 2018 involving 759 respondents (school pupils and their parents, pre-service and in-service teachers, school leading staff and educational authorities). The results showed that in Latvia prevails the belief that character education and virtue education have different goals, even if they are interrelated, whereas the main stream in international virtue ethics literature is to consider them as equivalents. The possible explanations of this discordance are discussed and some recommendations for reaching a unified understanding of character and virtue education in Latvian educational system are put forward.
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