On April 28, experts from centers of excellence in character education from the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Switzerland gathered for a workshop at the University of Navarra. The meeting was organized by a project entitled, “Researching and promoting character education in Latin American secondary schools”, which is developed jointly by the School of Education and Psychology and the Institute for Culture and Society, and is financed by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

Marco Gemignani, a professor at McAnulty College and the Graduate School of Liberal Arts at Duquesne University (USA) gave a session on qualitative research methods. Meanwhile, Abdeljalil Akkari, a professor within the School of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), discussed research methods in comparative education.

There was also a panel discussion on best practices and strategies for promoting awareness on character education, which included Marvin Berkowitz, co-director of the Center for Character and Citizenship and the Sanford N. McDonnell professor of character education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (USA), and James Arthur and Tom Harrison, director and development director respectively of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham (UK).

Theoretical and practical research

Members of the research project also participated in the workshop, including Concepcion Naval, project director and Dean of the School of Education and Psychology, Aurora Bernal, co-director of the project and Associate Dean of the School of Education and Psychology, Angel Sobrino, senior researcher and professor within the School of Education and Psychology, Daniel Moulin, project researcher and Institute for Culture and Society research fellow, and research assistants Juan Pablo Dabdoub and Apolinar Varela.

The Researching and promoting character education in Latin American secondary schools project will last three years and aims to achieve a better understanding of how the formation of positive character traits, particularly social and moral virtues, can be promoted in secondary education schools in Central and South America.

The project includes both theoretical research and practical application and focuses on Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. These countries have plans to revise education policies and best practices in schools, in collaboration with each region. In addition, the team will develop six case studies in secondary schools, for which they will apply more than 10,000 surveys, analyze 150 classrooms, organize several focus groups and interview students, teachers and parents.