Character Education: a Bibliography of Recent Research, Reports and Resources

Amanda Taylor

26 April 2017

In September 2016, the Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL) and Pearson commissioned NFER to undertake a literature review on approaches to the effective leadership, planning and delivery of character education. The evidence base identified was not sufficiently robust to answer our specific research questions, so we did not pursue the review. Nonetheless, our extensive searches revealed a wide range of research, reports and resources on character education. These provide useful further reading for those involved in developing effective provision in this area and have been compiled into this bibliography.

Character Education: a Bibliography of Recent Research, Reports and Resources includes a selection of reports, research and resources published since 2010 which we consider will be of most interest to school leaders. It is not an exhaustive list and inclusion does not imply endorsement. We have provided links to all resources correct at the time of publication. Many are freely available online but the full text of some articles published in peer-reviewed journals are behind a paywall, in which case the link provided goes to a full abstract.

NFER is currently working with ASCL/Pearson to address the gap we identified in the evidence base around the leadership and management of character education. Our current work focuses on collecting primary examples of character education in English schools in order to provide examples to other leaders and draw out key principles of effective practice.