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dc.contributor.advisorDavis, James Earl, 1960-
dc.creatorDempster, Monica
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-03T16:23:46Z
dc.date.available2020-11-03T16:23:46Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/2769
dc.description.abstractThis was a multi-case qualitative study, designed to investigate teacher educators’ perception of character education in Jamaica and how they enact character education in their classrooms. The study provided a localized version to the vast amount of research that has been conducted on character education in developed countries. Against the background of the significant role of teacher education, the study provided important insights regarding how teacher educators perceived, and enacted character education. Given the abstract nature of character education, a seven-point Likert scale questionnaire and two short cases were used to guide the interviews with the fifteen teacher educators’ who were purposively selected to take part in the study. Artifacts provided by the teacher educators, provided additional data for study. The responses on the questionnaire ranged from strongly agree through to strongly disagree. The data were analysed using the thematic approach. The data generated from the instruments were collated and attributed to the themes and major research questions to which they were aligned. The findings revealed that teacher educators’ perception of character education was closely aligned to the authoritative perception. The commonly shared view among participants was that character education is a means of instilling in children and young people the traditional values of the society and teaching them good manners. It was found that the older participants hold that character education is the process of teaching young people to be respectful, caring and to have good manners, especially to their elders. The younger participants hold that character education should focus on teaching young people the values and attitudes that will help them to live successfully in community, where there is mutual respect between all members of that community. They explained that the goal of character education should therefore be to equip young people with the ability to make right decisions and excel at what they do, rather than become obedient, subservient members of the society. All fifteen respondents strongly agreed with the authoritative perception, that people do not naturally develop good character and are therefore in need of correction. Twelve of the fifteen participants also revealed that their belief that human beings do not naturally develop good character is further supported by the experiences they have gained observing and relating to other human beings. The findings also revealed that except for Guidance Counselors, teacher educators did not formally teach character education. The teacher educators described their character education activities as informal and reactive. Informal because they did not usually go to their classes with a plan to teach character education, and reactive because many of their explicit character education actions were in response to the undesirable or inappropriate behaviours of their students. Their character education actions included correcting undesirable behaviours and modeling appropriate behaviours. Most of the teacher educators supported the direct didactic approach as the more effective approach to the teaching of character education and believed that pre service teachers are inadequately prepared for the task of character education.
dc.format.extent170 pages
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherTemple University. Libraries
dc.relation.ispartofTheses and Dissertations
dc.rightsIN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
dc.subjectEducational Leadership
dc.titleTeacher Educators' Perception of Character Education in Jamaica
dc.typeText
dc.type.genreThesis/Dissertation
dc.contributor.committeememberSmith, Michael W. (Michael William), 1954-
dc.contributor.committeememberGross, Steven Jay
dc.description.departmentEducational Leadership
dc.relation.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/2751
dc.ada.noteFor Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.edu
dc.description.degreeEd.D.
refterms.dateFOA2020-11-03T16:23:46Z


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