The Role of Literature in Character Education: On the Formation of the Modern 'Self' in Contemporary Liberal Schooling

Abstract: With the liberalisation of the society and education in the Western Countries, new development horizons have emerged thus altering our expectations from the younger generation and our vision of human fulfilment and happiness. As Dewey stressed, the current advance of technology and democratic ways of life results in the unprecedented rate and speed of changes and ‘it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities’ (Dewey, 1897, p.77). This prompted many educational policies in Western Countries to resort to character education as a long-term solution to the tensions between the demands on the child to succeed in tougher market-led society and the necessity to foster a democratic citizen of the globalised world (The US Partnerships in Character Education Program, 1994; Strategic Plan, 2002; Character Education Framework, 2019).  However, the recurring instances of school violence and shooting (Schaeffer, 1999, p. 2), and the turmoil of incessant military conflicts around the world expose the failure of current policies to foster a modern ‘self’ that would sustain the humanity rather than just democracy, thus making the current goals and priorities sensitive to criticism.    This paper takes on the topic of character education in liberal school setting and views it in a broader sense as part of formation of the modern ‘self’ in liberal society as opposed to traditional Aristotelian reading through virtue ethics and moral character. By studying the current character education policies in the USA, UK, European Union and Sweden, the first chapter of the thesis demonstrates the instrumentality of character education and prioritising educating for citizenship and democratic values. This paper sets to contest this approach to character education and proposes to adopt the idea of The Love of the World advanced as the guiding principle of education by Naomi Hodgson, Joris Vlieghe and Piotr Zamojski in their Manifesto for a Post-Critical Pedagogy (2017) as opposed to ‘educating for….’ formular predominant in the policies. The Manifesto offers the banner but does not elaborate on the content and how to attain the goals. The aim of this thesis is to commence to fill this gap. Carefully laying out the concepts of conservative, liberal and critical theories of education related to character formation, this paper analyses their strengths and week points and consolidates in ‘My Creed’ section what it considers the worthwhile postulates that would help to design character education governed by The Love of the World. Resorting to the educating power of literature I address the question of ‘How to foster character in liberal schooling of today’ when the child and what is good in the world replace the current slogans of educating for citizenry and democracy.