Big Question: Can the professions be virtuous?
This research was designed to deepen understanding of the place of virtues and values in initial education, training and subsequent professional practice in key professions in the UK today. To date, the Jubilee Centre has undertaken research in the teaching, law, medicine, nursing, and business professions, and British Army. The research has looked at the perceived and ideal character strengths of student and experienced professionals and their educators, as well as the levels of virtue-based reasoning applied by participants in response to moral dilemmas.
Recognising that professionals work within institutional, regulatory and disciplinary frameworks, the research explored how these restrict and/or allow space for individual agency.
The Centre recently published its Framework for Virtue-Based Professional Ethics, which can be downloaded below:
The ‘Bringing Character to Life’ series delivers key messages from the Centre’s previous research on virtues in the professions into an easily accessible handbook for each of the five professions studied. These can be found below.
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As part of the Centre’s 2021 webinar series, a webinar titled ‘Preparing Teachers & Nurses for Virtuous Practice’ was held, which focused on the teaching strategies of student teachers and student nurses that develop a notion of virtuous practice, based on the experiences of two professional educators, Lorna Hollowood (University of Birmingham) and Julie Taylor (University of Warwick).
Both speakers had built a character focus into their subject curriculums and spoke about why a focus on virtue is important in the training of professionals in each profession.
You can view the webinar below:
Below you can access the Statement, Summary and Collaborative Report of the Jubilee Centre’s research into the professions:
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You can access information about the individual reports and publications via the links below:
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