friendship

This paper presents a systematic review of scientific articles on friendship and character education (CE) published between 2007 and 2021. It seeks to identify the dominant theo- ries from which CE is approached, how friend- ship is understood in the studies, and what specific relationship is built between friend- ship and character; in other words, the extent to which it is posited that friendship can be harnessed to acquire virtues. Results indicate a prevalence of a psychological approach to CE, linked to an instrumentalist perspective on friendship, which associates it with certain benefits. However, this approach is closely followed by a philosophical–moral view that understands friendship as a good in itself and, consequently, highlights its humanizing potential. The Aristotelian framework for un- derstanding friendship and character stands out within this approach. The relationship be- tween friendship and character in the selected articles is explored through 5 categories that emerged in the analysis: 1) friendship for char- acter; 2) character for friendship; 3) friendship and transgressions; 4) teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the influence of friendship; and 5) analysis of programmes that include friendship in the curriculum.

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Please, cite this article as follows: Espinosa Zárate, Z., Ahedo Ruiz, J., & Rumayor, M. (2023). Amistad y educación del carácter: una revisión sistemática | Friendship and character education: A systematic review. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 81 (284), 143-169. https://doi.org/10.22550/REP81-1-2023-08

This article considers friendship as a channel for education and as one of its objectives, as it is a necessary ingredient for a fulfilled life. This requires an initial study of interpersonal relationships in the postmodern context, considering their opportunities and risks. Our aim is to draw a topography of these relationships by analysing texts by major thinkers of the last four decades. The result of this analysis is the core of the article, namely, that there are four categories which seem to give a proper account of the characteristics of interpersonal relationships in postmodernity and are relevant in education:
1) the questioning of the individual; 2) the appearance of the internet; 3) the recoveryof emotions; and, finally; 4) the extension of the feminine space. As a conclusion, they may all be said to have an ambivalent character that requires central issues in education to be reconsidered: the awareness and emotional regulation; the new constitution of identity and intimacy on the internet; education for male-female relationships, which now exist outside the sexual sphere, and preventing violence in these relationships; as well as how to educate for cooperation in an individualistic society.

 

 

Cite this article as:: Romero-Iribas, A. M. & Martínez Priego, C. (2017).  Topografía de las relaciones interpersonales en la postmodernidad: amistad y educación | Topography of interpersonal relationships in postmodernity: friendship and education. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 75 (267), 309-322. doi: https://doi.org/10.22550/REP75-2-2017-08