(Image: The Water of Life, by Stephen Broadbent) I recently visited Chester Cathedral. Entering the Cloister Garden, I was confronted by a greening sculpture of two ghostly figures, one bent over the other, both holding a bowl. The encircling inscription read: Jesus said, “the water that I shall give will be an inner spring always […]
Below you’ll find one of two abstracts submitted to the Jubilee Centre’s 2026 annual conference. You can find the other abstract here. Neither were accepted. In the abstract, I propose mapping the Jubilee Centre‘s three strategies of character “caught”, “taught”, and “sought” onto Self-Determination Theory’s (SDT) three basic psychologcal needs: relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Specifically,
Character education and basic psychological needs Read More »
Below you’ll find one of two abstracts submitted for presentation at the Phronesis in Theory and Practice conference at the University of Gdańsk. Both were accepted. I chose to present this one, as it drew explicitly on my proposed PhD research. You can find my presentation slides below, too. (You can read the other accepted
Phronesis and virtue internalisation Read More »
My thinking regarding my PhD research often changes. I will use this post to chronicle those changes, starting with my most recent thoughts. As of 26th September 2025: The following is an abstract I wrote for my student profile: Character development involves internalising virtues such as honesty, kindness, and bravery; and a virtue is internalised
The role of reflection in character development Read More »
The sixth module of my MA in Character Education (2022-25) was about leadership. This was my opportunity to articulate a vision for leading character education at my school. I had already critiqued my school’s approach to character education – especially its rewards policy – in several previous essays. Now, I had to think about what
Character is what we do in the toilets! Read More »
Below is the first essay I wrote for my MA in Character Education (2022-25), in which I revisit some of the themes from my first essay on character education. I also introduce two new ideas: The first is what I call the “villain” test for prospective programmes of character education. Character education should aim to
The “villain” test Read More »
Below is the essay I submitted for the final assignment of my PGCE (2021-22). It didn’t receive a fantastic grade; I strayed too far from the assignment brief, apparently. But for me, personally and professionally, it remains a pivotal piece of work. It brought together my longstanding love of philosophy with a growing passion for
Character education vs extrinsic rewards Read More »
