Character Education therefore cannot be done purely through the process of downloading ideas about Character that remain in the confines on an individual’s mind. These ideas must be tested — exercised into being and practised to the point where the nature of one’s responses to the world qualitatively change.

It is our belief at Barker that when the nature of an individual’s response to the world changes, the way in which the world responds to the individual will change too. It is through these minute and subtle ways that we each change and shape the world around us.

One of the central catchphrases of the Barker Character & Enterprise program is to “Look Within, Go Beyond”. We want our lessons on Character to start with an idea and end with an impact, where our students have the tools and the confidence to shape the world around them for the better. But how does someone lead another through the process of receiving an initial idea, through to acting it out in a way that leads to a tangible impact?

The first stage of Internalisation is defined by the process in which a student receives an idea; a new framework of seeing, new vocabulary or a new argument for being, and attempts to integrate it with their previous understanding of the world. While this process is in its infancy, it is usually accompanied with feelings of dissonance as the inertia of one’s experience and beliefs are subtly shifted. It is important that in each step as teachers that we are conscious of Vygotsky’s idea of the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’, and that the appropriate level of challenge is given at each stage. It is therefore important that these new ideas are delivered explicitly and with clarity, that new terms are clearly defined, and that new frameworks are compared and contrasted with previously introduced ideas. In this phase, classes are predominately teacher-led, with students given the time and space to write and process individually without interference from their peers before moving into the second phase.

This stage lies on the interface of the internal and external, as the student shares their rapidly evolving understanding with others, and listens and incorporates the feedback they receive from their peers as well as different perspectives and insights from others. Ideas are shared into an environment where they can be tested, modified and refined to a point of greater clarity and personal adoption.

In class, this phase is predominately marked by peer-to-peer interaction and discussion. The role of the teacher is to encourage students to be brave enough to share their initial thoughts, and to mediate discussion to ensure students feel safe and have a sense of belonging — that their ideas are worthy to be shared in the journey towards greater clarity.

By the end of this phase, students will have the ability to share their understanding of the new idea in more concise ways, with greater nuance than before this phase, as their internal understanding passes the test of its first exposure to the outside world. The second phase is therefore a time where an idea is played with, iterated upon, edited from the feedback of a small group of trusted peers and adults, before it is formed and germinated in a robust enough fashion to be taken into a potentially hostile and competitive outside world.

Through the context of a project, a student can see whether their new framework can stand up to the test. In our Character & Enterprise program, this comes through the form of working in groups to collaborate with a real-world organisation to develop a business proposal that will enhance that organisation’s social impact. Through both the successes and failures of their group throughout the project, students can observe the character framework they have been given being played out. The role of the teacher is to remind each student of the character framework, to assist in peer-to-peer dynamics, and to mediate relations with the adults representing the outside organisations. This third phase is not the final phase or end of the process, however. It is important that the new experiences of the students are again Internalised, then Germinated before being Actualised again.

The irony of developing the Character and Enterprise curriculum is that we teachers see ourselves inside this three-phase cycle. From being introduced to this framework in 2023 until now, we as a team of teachers have continually been seeking to understand the ideas for ourselves, share and iterate within our team before seeking to create an experience for students, which we can reflect on before adapting and improving it as we go.

We know there is a long road to go in the journey of teaching Character and Enterprise to our students, but the relevance of the ideas we are teaching towards the process of creating the program itself gives us confidence that we are delivering something with lasting relevance. We hope it will create lifelong learners; people of good character who adapt their response to the world, and in turn, change the world around them for good.