Professor Kristján Kristjánsson (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is Deputy Director in the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues and Professor of Character Education and Virtue Ethics at the University of Birmingham, U.K. His interests lie in research on character and virtues at the intersection between moral philosophy, moral psychology and moral education. He has published six books on those issues, the latest one is Flourishing as the Aim of Education (Routledge, 2020). His previous books include Aristotelian Character Education, (Routledge, 2015) which won the SES Prize for the best Education book of 2015 in the U.K., and has since been translated into Japanese, as well as Virtues and Vices in Positive Psychology (C.U.P., 2013), which has a Korean translation. Kristján was chair of the Programme Committee for the first IPEN conference in Texas. In addition to leading a number of the Jubilee Centre’s flagship projects, Kristján oversees all research activities in the Centre. As a member of various international organisations, Kristján collaborates with colleagues in Asia, Europe and the U.S.A. on issues that relate to the cultivation of virtuous character in general and virtuous emotions in particular. Kristján is Editor of the Journal of Moral Education.

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>Presentation Topic: Flourishing and Positive Education: A Synthesis and Some Remaining Problems

The concept of flourishing is all the rage in educational circles these days. However, there are at least four different conceptions of the concept competing for allegiance: Aristotelian, liberal, self-determination-theory-based, and positive-psychological/educational. This presentation offers a synthesis of those four conceptions or models, but also explores some remaining problems (theoretical and practical) that need to be addressed before flourishing can be seen as a viable overarching aim of education.