Theorizing Education

<p><em>Moral Emotions and Human Interdependence in Character Education</em> challenges contemporary mainstream approaches to character education predicated on individualism, ‘essential virtues’ and generic ‘character skills’. </p><p>This book<i> </i>synthesizes perspectives from phenomenology, psychology, cultural sociology and policy studies into a unique theoretical framework to reveal how ideas from positive psychology, emotional intelligence and Aristotelian virtues have found their way into the classroom. The idealized, self-reliant, resilient, atomized individual at the core of current character education is rejected as one-dimensional. Instead this book argues for an alternative, more complex <i>pedagogy of interdependence </i>that promotes students’ well-being by connecting them to the lives of others. </p><p>This book is an essential read for academics, researchers, postgraduate students and school teachers interested in character education and social and emotional learning.</p>