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The social dimension of higher education seems to have been highlighted in the most recent documents of the European Higher Education Area. Furthermore, the interest in providing future graduates with the competences necessary for their future jobs seems to have grown in recent decades. In this context, the key questions are what social competences could help graduates to enter the world of work and how universities can facilitate the development of such competences. In the present article, we clarify the role of civic and social competence in university education and offer some guidelines to orientate their learning. To address these objectives, the present study is divided into five parts. First, we define what we understand as civic or citizen competence. In the second part, we describe the reasons why we consider that the learning of civic competence may occur in different settings (formal, informal, or non-formal) of university life. We propose character education and integrated learning (IL) as promising approaches to foster civic learning in the third and fourth sections. Finally, we offer recommendations on how university leaders and professors might promote civic or citizenship competence.

Past reviews have examined the association between positive personality traits known as character strengths and work-related outcomes. However, little is known about the role of positive traits in the pre-career stage. This study aims to fill this gap by mapping the peer-reviewed literature on the relationships between character strengths, moral motivation and vocational identity in adolescents and young adult students. Scopus and Web of Science databases were used to identify English written sources published between 1980 and October 2020. Documents had to include one of the 24 positive psychology character strengths or a moral motivation construct (moral reasoning, moral identity or moral emotions) and one vocational identity process (commitment, exploration or reconsideration). 136 documents were selected (123 quantitative, 8 qualitative, and 5 theoretical). 15 strengths were studied together with a vocational identity process. The most investigated strengths were prudence (27.9%) curiosity (20.6%), hope (20.6%) and love (19.9%). Only one moral motivation construct (the moral emotion of empathy) was associated with vocational commitment. Four character strengths were the most studied in association with vocational identity. These strengths coincided with some skills and competencies promoted in career counselling. Some suggestions for future research on vocational development and character education are stated., Author(s): Jorge L. Villacís [sup.1] , Concepción Naval [sup.1] , Jesús De la Fuente [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.5924.a, 0000000419370271, School of Education and Psychology, University of Navarra, University [...]

The virtue of phronesis or practical wisdom is at the core of some cutting-edge interdisciplinary approaches to the scientific study of virtue. According to the Aristotelian phronesis model (APM), its most complex – and admittedly controversial – component is the “blueprint,” understood as the individual’s conception of the kind of things that matter for a flourishing life. This article reviews how APM’s developers currently operationalize the blueprint using moral identity measures. Controversies in conceptualizing the blueprint are outlined and limitations of moral identity measures are discussed. Alternative approaches, including goal orientation constructs and qualitative techniques, are suggested to better capture the blueprint’s conceptual complexity in empirical research. The article finds that the blueprint encompasses more than what is reflected in moral identity measures. The goals across life spheres that interweave in a flourishing life seem to be missing. This work aimed to enhance interdisciplinary research on individuals’ conceptualizations of a flourishing life across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventy-five years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights promoted a vision of education “directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms" (United Nations, 1948, 26.2). In 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) took this further, stating in SDG 4 that “the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes required by citizens to lead productive lives, make informed decisions and assume active roles locally and globally in facing and resolving global challenges can be acquired through education for sustainable development and global citizenship education” (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2016, p. 14). What might the adoption of this educational mission involve for higher education? And what does it mean in a challenging global context following the COVID pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine? This paper argues that the current global tumult should catalyse reflection as to the purpose and content of higher education. It focuses on the importance of education for “values and attitudes”, emphasized as an essential component of global citizenship and leadership education in the rubric of SDG 4. It proposes a return to the philosophical categories of “character” and “virtue”, arguing that the societal orientation of global universities and their aspiration “to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society” (Harvard College, 2022) necessitates a renewal of theoretically rigorous, pedagogically effective, and practically relevant character education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]