Five experts from institutions in the United Kingdom, the United States, Chile and Argentina will be keynote speakers at the “Character Education in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities” conference organized by the University of Navarra in Pilar (Argentina) on June 13-14, 2018.

The speakers include Marisa Meza Pardo, professor of Education at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, James Arthur and Kristján Kristjánsson, director and deputy director respectively of the Jubilee Center for Character and Virtues and professors at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom), Marvin W. Berkowitz, McDonnell Professor of Character Education and co-director of the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis (USA), and Pedro Luis Barcia, former president of the National Academy of Education and the Argentine Academy of the Humanities.

The conference is organized by the “Researching and promoting character education in Latin American secondary schools” project, a joint research project of the School of Education and Psychology and the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS). It received funding from the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

Marisa Meza will talk about “Teacher training for students’ character education.” In her paper, she offers a global view of the current demands of democratic moral education for future teachers. She will also reflect on some general challenges that teacher training presents with regard to this topic.

Kristján Kristjánsson will delve into “Philosophical and psychological perspectives on character education.” She will analyze the most recent philosophical/conceptual and psychological questions that come up in current discourse on character education.

Marvin W. Berkowitz will focus on the “Fundamentals of an effective character education,” which in his opinion includes six principles: prioritization, relationships, intrinsic motivation, being a model, empowerment and a development perspective. For his part, James Arthur will explain the focus the center he directs has and its context.

Pedro Luis Barcia will close the conference with a speech on “Character education in Argentina: Absence and need for its implementation.” He will summarize character education’s historical stages, from its introduction around 1950 to the present, as well as its current absence in educational content and objectives at all levels.

The Templeton Prize for Character Education in Latin America will be awarded during the event. It seeks to recognize character education projects that are being carried out in schools, motivating teachers to be involved in them and raising awareness of their value through the dissemination of best practices.