Teaching with and for Virtue

<p>In this dissertation, I explore virtue, teaching virtuously, and teaching virtue. I explore moral issues surrounding character and education with the ultimate aim of finding further clarity on how character education courses and programs should be taught. More broadly, I consider virtuous action and belief in various (usually educational) contexts. I explore the themes of caring relationships, moral education, the aim of education and the role of the teacher, and the relationship between virtuous behavior and virtuous mental states.</p><p>In Chapter 1, I introduce the themes of the dissertation in more detail. In Chapter 2, I argue that friendship can be utilized to promote student character development. In Chapter 3, I argue that humility is a virtue with both a mental and behavioral component, contrary to most accounts which are fully mental. In Chapter 4, I argue that whenever epistemically permissible, teachers are morally required to suspend judgment on whether their students will achieve their academic aims (such as getting into college or passing a class) when the odds are stacked against them. Finally, the Appendix provides two examples of transformative pedagogy playing out in college-level philosophy classrooms.</p>