Character Strengths in Early Years: Teachers’ Awareness and Practices

Abstract

Developing character strengths in early childhood has attracted increased attention all around the world in recent years. Nevertheless, very few studies have examined teachers’ awareness and practices concerning character strengths. The present study aimed to discover early childhood teachers’ awareness of children’s character strengths and classroom practices to reveal and develop these strengths on the basis of the twenty-four character strengths included in the VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues. Interviews were held with 25 early childhood teachers selected via criterion sampling method and the interviews were coded using content analysis. The main findings of the study show that the strengths teachers consider important in children are similar to those (curiosity, love, love of learning and creativity) they frequently observe in children. Most teachers highlight the development of creativity in children believing that adopting different perspectives, problem solving and achievement would be improved through creativity. In addition, teachers suggested that self-regulation should be supported during the preschool period. Teachers’ practices to develop character strengths in children were not found purposeful and were seen to be limited to the national curriculum. Thus, the study discusses possible ways to raise teachers’ awareness of character strengths and enhance their concerning practices in the early childhood as well as providing the theoretical and practical contributions of the study.

Keywords

• early childhood period
• early childhood teacher
• character strengths
• positive psychology

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