The Director of Character Education Programme, Peter King’ori gave a presentation during the 49th Annual Conference of the Association for Moral Education which was held from October 26th – 28th, 2023 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. The Conference was hosted by the Texas Christian University with the theme “Positive Youth Development and Moral Education: Building Bridges”. His presentation was entitled “Promoting Development of Character Strengths and Flourishing Among Adolescents Students.”

The conference brought together individual researchers and practitioners from 27 Countries across the world who are engaged in research and practice of positive youth development together with those who are engaged in the study and practice of moral education. The three days conference featured inspirational key note speakers, symposiums presentations, papers and posters presentations drawn from the field of philosophy, sociology, religion, education, psychology, and political science among others.
Additionally, Peter Kingori served as the Chairperson of the Poster Award Committee along with Prof Christine Gouveia from University of Pennsylvania in the USA and Prof. Jiang Fei from Northeast Normal University in China.

The Association for Moral Education gives the Poster Award for outstanding Poster presentation addressing important topics in the areas of moral development and education. Other Kenyans who presented during the Conference included Grace Ngugi from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and Esther Chongwo from Aga Khan University.

Grace’ presentation was entitled “Mainstreaming values and life skills education in the curriculum to foster character development among the youth: the Kenyan landscape; while Esther’s presentation was entitled “Mabrouk’s Measure of Adolescent Optimism: Development and Validation of a New Scale of Adolescent Optimism.”

More information about the conference can be found here 

On 11th August 2023, the Centre for Character and Leadership hosted a virtual conference on Cultivating Virtues for Leadership that was attended by various stakeholders working in the education sector. These included secondary school principals, teachers and government representatives from the Ministry of Education and Teachers Service Commission.

The conference was held as a culmination of two years pilot implementation of the ‘Cultivating Virtues in Kenyan School leaders (CViL) project with support from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. CViL was designed to guide and support educators on a personal and professional journey of growth and development through the cultivation of servant leadership virtues. The virtues included noble purpose, integrity, humility, gratitude, forgiveness, courage, empowerment, foresight, and stewardship.

During the conference, principals and teachers from the CViL pilot schools located in 16 Counties made inspiring presentations of the character-based best practices which they have documented over time. The practices are helping in fostering good character among the learners as well as supporting improvement of school culture and climate.

Notable promising practices included:

• Virtue of the week initiative, talking pillars initiative and establishment of family mentorship meetings by Ruai Boys High School in Nairobi County.
• Incorporation of virtues in school activities, and engaging learners in community service learning by Matobo Secondary School in Kericho County.
• Peer mentorship program and project based learning initiatives by Kamirithu Secondary School in Kiambu County.
• Adopt a tree and tag a virtue initiative by Buruburu Girls High School in Nairobi County.
• Character-based recognition of learners by Mutira Girls High School in Kirinyaga County.
• Touch a soul initiative by Drumvale Secondary School in Nairobi County
• Peer Counseling Hour by Baraka Oontoyie Secondary School in Kajiado County
• Talking walls initiative by Kaabazi Secondary School in Nakuru County.
• Parents involvement program by Sandai Secondary School in Baringo County.
• Psycho-social support program by Kenya Institute of Special Education in Nairobi County and,
• Academic excellence mentorship program by Kiamutugu Boys Secondary School in Kirinyaga County.

The preliminary research findings indicated that principals and teachers have found the CViL program being appealing and relevant to their contexts thereby leading to a better understanding and appreciation of the Servant Leadership virtues. As a result, teachers are becoming more empathetic and fairer to all students; teachers are doing the assigned responsibilities in the right way and always being truthful in their work; and teachers are gaining confidence from colleagues and students.

Also, the presenters attributed the implementation of character -based promising practices to the improvement of greener and more beautiful learning environment; students becoming more hospitable, responsible and determined; students being respectful to one another thereby leading to reduced indiscipline cases; students being honest and not cheating in exams; schools’ improvement in academics during national exams and openness among the students in sharing about their issues.

The Cultivating Virtues in Leaders (CViL) project was recently featured in the Character and global leadership report published by the Oxford Character Project. CViL is offered to Kenyan school principals and their leadership teams with an aim to develop servant leadership virtues among them and skills necessary to lead school transformation.

The report was carried out by a multicultural group of researchers who examined academic literature and educational programmes focused on character-based leadership, with particular attention to five regions comprising 137 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The regions included Southern and East Africa, Central and West Africa, Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, and South and Central Asia. The researchers investigated prevalent values, reviewed leadership literature, and analyzed leadership development programmes in each region.

The study was guided by the following questions:

1. What leadership character traits/virtues are relevant to LMICs?
2. What is the current scholarly understanding of character-based leadership in LMICs?
3. Who are developing character-based leaders in LMICs and how?
4. What are the gaps in character-based leadership research and programmes in LMICs?

The idea of character-based leadership is an expansive one, encompassing theories and models such as authentic leadership, ethical leadership, servant leadership, social justice leadership, spiritual leadership, values-based leadership, and virtuous leadership.

The report key findings indicated:

• The most highly valued leadership virtues across LMICs are empathy, honesty, courage, transparency, and care.
• The most prominent educational virtues emphasised in educational programmes are integrity, responsibility, service, compassion, empathy, inclusion, courage, wisdom, perseverance and purpose.
• Consistent increase in published papers on character-based leadership across LMICs.
• Over half (55%) of research papers focus on the corporate sector, with education second at 22%.
• Servant leadership is the most prominent model in academic research.
• The largest provider of character-based leadership programmes is the NGO sector, followed by universities.
• Common programme components and educational strategies include service-learning projects, role models, and learning communities.

You can read more about Character and Global Leadership Report here:

https://oxfordcharacter.org/research/character-global-leadership-report-2023

Character and Global Leadership 2023