Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2001, Page 105

KRISTJÁN KRISTJÁNSSON
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ABSTRACT
„Life skills" is the name of a subject which has recently been introduced into the
curricula of Icelandic schools, from the preschool to the secondary school level. A
close look at the goals and objectives of the life-skills curricula indicates that the
basic idea behind them echoes that of „character education" which has for a long
time been a hot topic in Western educational discourse, and, more specifically, that
of so-called „non-expansive character education" tliat has been enjoying a swift
renascence in the United States and elsewhere during the last decade or so.
The main aim of the present essay is to give an overview of the development of
character education in an international context: its history, presuppositions,
taxonomy, and rationale. I first put the notion of „non-expansive" character ed-
ucation in context by Iocating its place within recent trends in values education and,
in particular, by distinguishing it from more expansive accounts such as religious
fundamentalism, civic education and critical postmodernism. I argue that the
essential characteristics of non-expansive character education are, on the one hand,
moral cosmopolitanism (the idea of a minimal base of transcultural virtues that can
be transmitted to all students at school without discriminating against any religious
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