Character education has been viewed by many educators as having significant
historical, academic, and social value. Many stakeholders in education argue for
character development as a curricular experience. While understanding the degree to
which character education is of worth to stakeholders of institutions is important,
understanding students, teachers, and administrators perspectives from their lived
experiences is likewise significant.
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain a deeper understanding
of character education within a Biblical framework environment by examining the lived
experiences of students, administrators, and teachers of a Seventh-day Adventist
School. Phenomenology describes individuals’ daily experiences of phenomena, the
manner in which these experiences are structured, and focuses analysis on the
perspectives of the persons having the experience (Moustakas, 1994). ). This inquiry
was undertaken to answer the question: What are the perceptions of students, teachers,
and an administrator toward character education in a Seventh-day Adventist school
setting?
Ten participants (seven students and three adults) formed the homogeneous
purposive sample, and the major data collection tool was semi-structured interviews
(Patton, 1990; Seidman, 2006). Three 90-minute open-ended interviews were
conducted with each of the participants. Data analysis included a three-phase process of
description, reduction and interpretation.
The findings from this study revealed that participants perceived that their
involvement in the school’s character education program decreased the tendency to
violence, improved their conduct and ethical sensibility, enhanced their ability to
engage in decision-making concerning social relationships and their impact on others,
brought to their attention the emerging global awareness of moral deficiency, and
fostered incremental progress from practice and recognition of vices to their acquisition
of virtues. The findings, therefore, provide a model for teaching character education
from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective. The model is also relevant for non-Seventh
day Adventists who aspire to teach character education as a means to improving social
and moral conditions in schools.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fiu.edu/oai:digitalcommons.fiu.edu:etd-1873 |
| Date | 09 November 2012 |
| Creators | Tyrell, Marva E. |
| Publisher | FIU Digital Commons |
| Source Sets | Florida International University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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