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Citation |
White B, Haberling J. J. Lang. Lit. Educ. 2006; 2(2): 1-21. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2006, The journal, Publisher University of Georgia, Department of Language and Literacy Education) |
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DOI |
unavailable |
PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
Character and character education have become increasingly important in public schools (Smagorinsky, 2002), but what is "character" and what are the essential components of character education? In this article, the authors first discuss their definition of "character" and argue that character education must be both constructivist and relational. Second, they argue that teachers of literature are uniquely situated to help young people cultivate concern for character by enriching students' understanding of and responses to the lives and decisions of literary characters. Third, they discuss the use of case studies as an especially promising approach to character education in literary studies. Finally, they tell the story of their use of prereading case studies in a 10thgrade literature classroom, demonstrating the ways in which the case studies served to help students develop, extend, and apply their concern for character in the literature classroom and beyond. |