Understanding the nature of character education: a Systematic Review

The aim of this study was to investigate the components of character education for elementary school students.

Data collection was based on a systematic qualitative research design. The sample was selected using the criteria of acceptance and non-acceptance and to search for texts, the keywords were selected based on the review of texts and the opinion of thematic experts. Then, considering the degree of relevance to the research topic, primary sources were filtered and 27 sources were selected for final review. The content analysis along with the open and axial coding of selected sources were used for further analysis. In order to check the validity of the findings, the agreement coefficient between the two coders was found to be is 0.91.

The result of this analysis was to provide a comprehensive definition of character education and to identify the related themes: mindfulness, resilience, curiosity, courage, ethics, and leadership. According to the synthesis of the related research, the definition of character education is as follows:"Character education is an explicit, overt, deliberate, Conscious, dynamic interplay between internal determinants and external influences by using the curriculum schools, families, and communities to cultivate moral content in the form of internalized pattern of core ethical, performance and citizenship values and the consequent attitudes and actions."

Summarizing the results of this study, it can be said that character education as a basic necessity and right is the interaction between internal determinants and external influences and can be trained by taking into account the identified themes and using a purposeful curriculum based on the needs of individuals and communities in the twenty first century to cultivate moral capacities in the form of an internalized model of values.