Character and Public Policy: Educating for an Ethical Life

The Inaugural Public Conference of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Values

The Jubilee Centre for Character and Values is the first research centre in the UK dedicated to research into the Character and Values that shape UK society. The over-arching aim of the new centre, supported by the John Templeton Foundation, is to contribute to the renewal of character and values in Britain through research and development activities.

Research projects in the centre will cover all areas of British society: from character education in schools, to examining the values that motivate professionals such as teachers, lawyers and doctors, as well as those in the media, finance industries and civil service. It will try to answer questions that are fundamental to understanding modern Britain including:

• How does the power of good character transform and shape the future of society? 
• What would be the wider social, cultural and moral impact of a more grateful Britain? 
• What personal virtues should ground public service? 
• How can fostering character traits like hope and optimism help work towards a better British society?

The Centre will initiate a national consultation on a proposed curriculum policy for character building in schools.

Speakers

Changing our culture: the Action for Happiness approach

Professor Lord Richard Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science

Preparing Good Persons, Good Workers, Good Citizens

Professor Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University

Character Education and the Puzzle of Pluralism

Professor James Hunter, LaBrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture and Social Theory, University of Virginia. 

Profiles of Virtue in Public Life

Professor William Damon, Professor of Education, Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace Stanford University 

Cost: free of charge

To register, contact a.p.thompson@bham.ac.uk