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This paper argues that the influential French thinker, Simone Weil, has something distinctive and important to offer educational and ethical inquiry. Weil's ethical theory is considered against the backdrop of her life and work, and in relation to her broader ontological, epistemological and political position. Pivotal concepts in Weil's philosophy – gravity, decreation and grace – are discussed, and the educational implications of her ideas are explored. The significance of Weil's thought for educationists lies in the unique emphasis she places on the development of attention, a notion elaborated here via the key themes of truth, beauty and love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary educational goals place increasing emphasis on conferring recognition and building self-esteem for people deemed to be marginalized and vulnerable. Such goals coalesce with the language, symbols and practices of therapy inscribed within a broader 'therapeutic ethos'. The paper relates these trends to broader cultural demoralization about people's potential for human agency and evaluates their effects on educational debates. A therapeutic ethos in education appears benign and empowering. Yet, the paper argues that it produces a diminished view of people and low expectations about people's capacity for resilience and autonomy. One effect is to encourage an alignment between the values and activities of education and welfare. This both legitimizes and extends institutional and government influence over people's psychological and emotional states. The paper explores these trends and evaluates their implications for educational ideas about human agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out to explore apparent contradictions between claims or assumptions to the effect that: (i) teaching is a profession; (ii) good teaching involves the cultivation of positive personal relationships with pupils; (iii) professional relationships should be of an essentially formal or impersonal nature. It is argued that the very real contradictions to which teaching as a professional occupation is prone are a function of fundamental tension between the essentially deontic character of professional principle and regulation, and the inherently ‘virtue ethical’ nature of teaching as a form of pre-theoretical and non-technical moral association. The paper concludes by identifying and offering some comment on three such areas of tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Character education is a specific approach to morals or values education, which is consistently linked with citizenship education. But how is it possible for a heterogeneous society that disagrees about basic values to reach a consensus on what constitutes character education? This article explores how character education has returned to the agenda of British education policy, having been largely neglected since the 1960s in response to unsatisfactory attempts at character education going back to the nineteenth century. Between 1979 and 1997 Conservative governments attempted to reverse a perceived decline in moral standards, established State control of the schools curriculum, imposed on State schools the duty to provide for moral and other development, and established a National Forum which attempted to articulate a set of consensus values in education. Labour has extended these developments in the curriculum, introduced compulsory citizenship education, and its White Paper of September 2001 speaks of ‘education with character’. The character and virtues Labour seeks to promote through schools are pragmatic and instrumental in intention, linked to raising pupil school performance, meeting the needs of the new economy, and promoting democratic participation. Otherwise the vision is pluralistic and evades explicit directives, and there is no explanation or analysis of its theoretical basis. The question of how agreement can be reached on what counts as character education may benefit from Sunstein's analysis of how law is possible in a heterogeneous society –‘incompletely theorized agreements on particular cases’ allow for common laws without agreement on fundamental principles. Many schools in fact operate in this way, but such a consensus is not entirely stable and runs the danger of teaching character education as a series of behaviour outcomes taught in a behaviourist fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I explore the role of manners and morals.1 In particular, what is the connection between emotional demeanor and the inner stuff of virtue? Does the fact that we can pose faces and hide our inner sentiments, i.e., ‘fake it,’ detract from or add to our capacity for virtue? I argue, following a line from the Stoics, that it can add to our virtue and that, as a result, moral education needs to take seriously both a commitment to good character and a commitment to the ‘aesthetic’ of character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues on the relation of sex education with homosexuality, and the parents' concerns for the moral education of their children. Questionable motive of approach with any of the claims; Aims of education in a democratic society; Influence of the school on sexual orientation and activity; Issues that claims the unnatural and natural definition of homosexuality; Index of the quality of a school's provision in the area of the personal and social claims of education and the treatment for homosexuality issues.

This article offers a critical assessment of academic intelligence studies in higher education. It argues that universities (and academics) should value this subject far more highly than they currently do. Doing so will enhance better public understanding of an increasingly important and unique device in modern governance. It will also improve the quality of intelligence activity by raising awareness of both good and bad practice, encourage lawfulness by means of public understanding and so defending a vital public service from ill-informed attacks in today’s conflicted world. This, rather than training potential officers, should be the primary purpose of intelligence studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the civic republican conception of citizenship underlying the Labour government's programme of civil renewal and the introduction of education for democratic citizenship. It considers the importance of the cultivation of civic virtue through political participation for such developments and it reviews the research into how service learning linked to character education can lead to the civic virtue of duty or social responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a brief discussion of the concept of love and contemporary attitudes towards it, the article examines previously unpublished findings about children's ways of thinking about love, using evidence drawn from a research project on the developing sexual values of 9 and 10 year-old children. Love features extensively in their discussions and appears central to their worldview. They are aware of some of the complexities of love, and would value opportunities to discuss it further. The article concludes with a discussion of current inadequacies and future possibilities in schools’ provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that the privatisation of education needs to be understood through an ethical lens, and suggest a broad framework through which privatisation policies and practices might be ethically audited. These policies and practices– it is suggested– are creating new ethical spaces and new clusters of goals, obligations and dispositions. Whatever the merits of our particular reading of these changes, we would call for an urgent public debate on these questions– one that looks beyond broad ideological questions to consider the effects of privatisation on the nature of the services provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Introduces the articles published in the March 2004 issue of the "British Journal of Educational Studies". Key issues in educational development; Fundamental questions on educational purposes; Teaching of values; Development of learning skills in children.

Identifies the role of Frederick James Gould in the transformation of moral education in Great Britain. Promotion of non-theological moral instruction in the country and throughout the world until Gould's death in 1938; Advocate in reflecting the assumptions of a broad range of British liberal intellectuals about morality, education and individual freedom; Writings that contributed to the transition of moral education from its roots in fixed standards of personal morality to a tool to inculcate a civic and social morality.

The article presents an analysis of education of royal princes like George IV and William IV of Great Britain. For the Prince Consort, concerned about the upbringing of the future Edward VII, the sons of George III provided an example of what was to be avoided; the great object, he said, must be to make the Prince of Wales as unlike as possible to any of his great-uncles. In a memorandum written only a few months after the birth of the prince he referred to the 'glaring errors' of the sons of George III, which he attributed to the defects of their education. George III did his best in a rather unimaginative way. He took a genuine interest in his sons' education; he gave them plenty of good advice; and he set a good example as regards his personal conduct. He was a faithful husband and a moral and religious man, and he preferred a simple life in the country to the splendours and ceremonies of the court. For those who regard the stability and security of a child's home as of paramount importance it is sad to reflect how signally his sons failed to profit by their home background.

The article focuses on the ethical foundations of education. Education involves the initiation of others into worth-while activities, a range of activities that are thought to be worth passing on, apart from their utilitarian or vocational value. Activities can be more or less interesting, absorbing or fascinating depending on the dispositions and competence of the agent and the characteristics of the activity in question. The difference between worthwhile activities and any other activities would therefore be one of degree, if wants and pleasures were argued to provide a sufficient criterion of worthwhileness. All activities could be more or less worth while to different people or in different situations. They consist of a set of conditions which tend to increase the extent or degree to which any agent whatsoever might be likely to want to engage in any activity whatsoever. These conditions are: The urgency of the objective; its palpable and pleasurable point; the opportunities which it provides for being engaged; its capability of holding a person's attention for a certain span of time; its provision of constant sources of pleasure and satisfaction; and the extent to which it satisfies a necessary criterion of mutual compatibility with other wanted activities