My team (Albert Smith, Cameron Dow, Chitalu Chanda and Deep Thakkar) and I are currently researching the impact of character on life outcomes, specifically for schools in Oxfordshire. Our research question poses "What character framework should the University of Oxford integrate into the co-curricular programmes it is looking to deliver to local primary schools, taking into consideration the specific character needs of school students in Oxford?" 

Therefore, we planned to go to the conference with the objective of 

• Understanding the rationale behind other academic/educationalists' choice of a framework
• Receiving information on the new and unpublished Jubilee Character Framework
• Gather more understanding of the Character sphere for our literature review.  

The Association for Character Education is a non-profit organisation that is dedicated into sharing resources and teaching other educationalists on how to apply character eduction to their school curriculums. 

First Impressions:

Our team arrived over an hour before the conference started! Many of us many our way to the station in the rain for an early 7.40am train (Chitalu missed it by a minute!).  Luckily we were greeted by a nice array of refreshments.

Content + Relevance 

Before the conference started, our team decided to engage with one of the stallholders, the Archbishops' Young Leaders Award, we learnt that there are NGOs that are also driven to embed character qualities into schools as external stakeholders. This was extremely encouraging that other organisations have the same mission as us! Additionally, this may be a useful piece of information to unpack when suggesting alternative options for schools to use in their curricula. It would release the burden of workload when applying additional character education where is already doesn't exist. 

Professor Tom Harrison  & Dr Shane McLoughlin presented the new Jubliee Character Framework which our team was very excited for. On a whole, I believe it gave a good balance between theoretical and practical advice through the acronyms INSPIRE and RIPPLE. Without going too deep into the technicalities, these two tools help schools to understand the main outcomes of character education, and the methods by which to achieve them.

Inspiration + Motivation

Personally, a lot of light was shone onto the concepts of virtues and values when a speaker discussed virtues being the pathway towards certain values. This clarified the difference between the terms. Confusion of character language and semantics is a key attribute in the character sphere!  

However, experts in the field know this and therefore I was very pleased that discussion was a core component throughout the conference. We were often given prompts and asked to discuss them, usually how to apply them to 'our own personal school situations'. Being just students we felt we couldn't contribute in that aspect, however we learnt a lot from the teachers/headteachers sitting at our tables.

As Deep pointed out, it was extremely encouraging to see so much hope in this conference. To have a room full of educationalists and teachers, all representing their schools, and genuinely having the desire to foster good virtues into their children, gave us a lot of hope. 

Network + Collaboration

We did not interact with as many teachers as we would have liked to, however, as a team I felt that this day was incredibly valuable for our internal network through the deep conversations we were having. Personally, I felt my brain growing from learning from everyone's worldviews, and also my heart growing as I got to know everyone on a deeper level. I truly am lucky to work with such wonderful and kindhearted individuals, with amazing minds.  

Some final notes of appreciation to Corey, our lovely supervisor! Without her, the character team would not have been able to attend the conference. Additionally, she has provided us with contacts with some character specialists that we are very excited to get in touch with to gain valuable insights!

All in all, this was a wonderful experience for us!

The Character Team.