Character and Virtues

The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues was established at the University of Birmingham on 16th May 2012. To date, it has secured over GBP25million in research and teaching grants, employed over 75 members of staff, and undertaken research across education, philosophy, psychology, sociology and other fields. The Jubilee Centre marks its 10-year anniversary in May 2022 and has embarked upon a series of activities and events throughout 2022 to celebrate ten years of research on character and virtues. This book captures the key areas of focus of the Jubilee Centre's work over the past ten years. It is structured in four parts, with Part I capturing the initial planning for the Jubilee Centre's ten-year horizon project, its launch in May 2012, and the Jubilee Journey of major grant phases between 2012 and 2022. Part II considers the four areas that our work has covered; those of schools, the professions, youth social action, and a closer look at the specific virtues of gratitude and phronesis in action. Part III considers the ways in which we engaged partners and created meaningful impact both in the UK and internationally; unifying the academic field of character and virtues whilst creating tangible impact at education policy-level and on the practice and provision of character education in schools. Part IV then turns to some reflections on the past ten years, including celebrating some important staff achievements and successes, how the Jubilee Centre has overcome challenges and looking towards the future. This book would be of interest to those who have followed any part of the Jubilee Centre's journey since 2012, as well as researchers into character and virtues and character educators in schools and universities.