Teaching virtue through physical education: some comments and reflections

In this paper I explore a number of important implications for a moral pedagogy through sport and physical education. In order to do so, I first reiterate the credentials of a virtue theoretical approach to moral action and moral agency and reinforce the claim that the philosophy and psychology of virtue are best suited to provide the firm ground upon which pedagogy may be constructed. Having briefly sketched these credentials I identify a number of empirically informed issues that pedagogues must be cognisant of when attempting to educate the virtues through sport. Namely (a) the situational sensitivity of virtue and the power of the context over moral action, (b) the psychological diversity and heterogeneity of virtues and the attendant consequences, (c) that there is a necessary diversity of good characters, moral goodness, and therefore the aims of moral education, both in general and in sport should be conceived broadly rather than narrowly and (d) no one person can possess ‘all’ the virtues.