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The Initiative
UCCD is an initiative of the Education, Citizenship & Character Research Group at University of Navarra that brings together researchers and educators from around the world to collaborate in the promotion and improvement of character education at the university level, integrating research and practice.
Our mission
We will create flourishing university communities that support the collaborative development of virtuous character in service of purposeful lives committed to the common good.
Our reasons
Following a long tradition of philosophers, educators, and psychologists, we believe that education should aim to create the best conditions to help students cultivate virtuous character and discover their own noble purpose in life.
There is strong evidence stating that belonging and participating in a value-driven community that shares a mission can contribute virtuous character development and the pursuit of noble purpose.
In these communities, leadership plays a major role in designing the optimal conditions for this to happen intentionally and strategically.
The UCCD initiative explores how these communities should be designed and promoted in order to provide its members with the ideal conditions to discover their purpose and develop a virtuous character.
How?
Building an international
community of practice
Engaging in
high-quality research
Delivering evidence-based
training
Consulting with practitioners
and impacting policy
Providing resources
to practitioners
The story behind this initiative
The team leaders have done their university studies living in Colegios Mayores, the Spanish version of the European Colleges. It was a life-changing experience that helped us to discover our purposes in life. This led us to reorient our professional vocation towards the study and promotion of such institutions.
After a decade leading one of these communities, we have taken a step further by establishing the UCCD initiative to continue studying and promoting university communities where all members are invited to cultivate virtuous character in order to live purposeful lives committed to serving the common good.
The Team
WHO IS BEHIND THIS INITIATIVE?
CO-DIRECTOR
Researcher at the University of Navarra. Member of the Education, Citizenship & Character Research Group.
CO-DIRECTOR
Researcher at the University of Navarra. Collaborator of the Education, Citizenship & Character Research Group.
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Advisory Board
WHO IS LENDING THEIR EXPERTISE TO SUPPORT THIS INITIATIVE?
Co Director of the Center for Character & Citizenship
Dr. Marvin W. Berkowitz is the inaugural Sanford N. McDonnell Endowed Professor of Character Education, and Co-Director of the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and University of Missouri President’s Thomas Jefferson Professor. He has also served as the inaugural Ambassador H.H. Coors Professor of Character Development at the US Air Force Academy (1999), and Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Ethics Studies at Marquette University (1979-1999). He was also founder and Associate Director of the Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research in Milwaukee. Since 1999 he has directed the Leadership Academy in Character Education in St. Louis.
Edward Brooks
Executive Director of the Oxford Character Project
Edward Brooks is the Executive Director of the Oxford Character Project at the University of Oxford. His research lies at the intersection of virtue ethics, character and leadership development. Particular interests include the relationship between character and culture in commercial organizations, leadership for human flourishing, exemplarist moral theory, the virtue of hope, and character and leadership development in universities, businesses, and grassroots contexts. He has co-founded a number of character and leadership programmes at Oxford and around the world including the Global Leadership Initiative, the Global Leadership Challenge and the Oxford SDG Impact Lab. He is co-editor of Cultivating Virtue in the University (Oxford University Press, 2022) with Jonathan Brant and Michael Lamb.
Concepción Naval
Dean of the School of Education and Psychology at University of Navarra
Professor of Education. Since 2013, Dean of the School of Education and Psychology at University of Navarra. She has been Oliver Smithies Lecturer at Oxford University (Balliol College); Visiting Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University; Visiting Professor, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico and Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar (Austria). She directs the journal "Estudios sobre Educación". Her research focuses on citizenship education and social participation, the social impact of communication technologies on young people, educational innovation in higher education and character education. She is principal investigator of the consolidated interdisciplinary Education, Citizenship & Character Research Group since its origin in 1997. She was a member of the expert group of the project "A Study on Active Citizenship Indicators" funded by the European Commission, DG Education and Culture (Regioplan Beleidsonderzoek. Amsterdam, 2005).
Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Notre Dame
Clark Power is a Professor of Psychology and Education in the Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) at the University of Notre Dame, and a Concurrent Professor in the Department of Psychology. He received his Ed.D. from Harvard University in the area of Human Development. While at Harvard, he worked with Lawrence Kohlberg and his team to develop the manual for coding the stages of moral judgment. He also began his research on the just community approach to moral and democratic education.
Clark joined the Program of Liberal Studies in 1982. Continuing to study schools, he broadened his research and teaching to address children’s rights, school discipline, and community-based liberal arts education. In 2001, Clark turned to youth sports as a vehicle for promoting children’s development. Several years later, he founded Play Like a Champion, a non-profit serving youth sport organizations across the United States. Most recently, he has engaged in intervention research designed to support children in low-income urban neighborhoods through youth sports and afterschool activities.
Partners
WE ARE PROUD TO WORK WITH THESE ORGANIZATIONS
