Mark A Pike
Biographic Data
| ID | 5241069 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark A Pike |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark A |
| FAMILY NAME | Pike |
| SIGNATURE | PIKE M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0314-7513 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Virtue ethics for flourishing leaders
This article builds upon important work on leadership practices and behaviours in schooling. It shows how approaches informed by virtue ethics may enable educational leaders to be increasingly authentic and emotionally intelligent, to build higher-performing teams and ensure more consistent staff and student flourishing. It demonstrates why ‘values’ are not enough and illustrates the merit of ‘virtues’ (operationalised as behaviours) in school cu…
The ‘image of God’ and the schooling of virtue
This article reports how the Judeo-Christian belief that all persons are ‘made in God’s image’ (imago Dei) leads to an egalitarian and generous evaluation of children and young people educated in a group of Christian-ethos schools with no ‘faith-test’ for admission in socio-economically disadvantaged areas of the north of England. The inclusiveness of Christian humanist perspectives, ancient and modern, conceiving of imago Dei as the divine gift …
Character development through the curriculum
This article reports on the differential impact of a curriculum intervention on students’ understanding and practice of virtue. The research is germane given Ofsted’s new requirement that its inspectors should assess how the curriculum in all schools in England and Wales supports students’ character development. Results are reported here for a total of 1226 eleven- and twelve-year-olds assessed at the beginning and end of their first secondary sc…
Teaching virtues through literature
Character education through curriculum subjects has taken increasing political importance in England after its inclusion in the school inspection framework. Here we present a pedagogical approach to developing virtue literacy through English Literature. As part of a longitudinal, mixed-methods research project, this article uses empirical evidence from interviews with 26 students to identify and discuss the processes students used in the developm…
Parents’ perspectives on home-based character education activities
This study investigated parents’ perspectives on a taught character education programme implemented with children in their schools and homes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with forty-one parents of secondary school students participating in the Narnian Virtues Character Education English Project. Parents answered questions relating to the curriculum’s home activities which they undertook with their child. A thematic analysis of the da…
The future of publicly funded faith schools
This book critically examines the ‘different claims and arguments being made for and against the retention and indeed expansion of Faith schools’ (p. 2) in England and Wales. This is a matter of im
Evaluating the pilot Narnian Virtues Character Education English Curriculum Project
In order to evaluate the impact of the pilot Narnian Virtues Character Education English Curriculum Project, a pilot sample of 86 year 7 and year 8 students (11 to 13 years of age) completed a battery of tests both before and after participating for six weeks in the programme. The battery of tests comprised 12 Narnian Character Virtue Scales (NCVS) (to assess the degree to which students saw themselves as behaving virtuously), the Knowledge Index…
Conceptualising and testing the Narnian Character Virtue Scales
This paper sets out to examine and to operationalise 12 key character virtues identified within C. S. Lewis’ Narnian texts: courage, curiosity, forgiveness, fortitude, gratitude, hard work, humility, integrity, justice, love, self-control, and wisdom. A pilot study among 56 year eight students (12–13 years of age) generated nine five-item instruments displaying adequate internal consistency reliability, and suggested ways in which the other three…
Mere Education
‘The Trees of Knowledge and Life Growing Together’ in the Educational Vision of C.S. Lewis
Peter Medway’s paper ‘English and Enlightenment’ (Changing English, 2010) and David Stevens’ response to it, ‘Critically Enlightened Romantic Values and English Pedagogy: A Response to Peter Medway’ (Changing English, 2011), address the relative merits of the quest for truth and the place of aesthetic response in English. It is suggested here, however, that each paper contains the kernel of a counter-argument to the one being presented and that, …
Ethical English Teaching
This article begins by drawing attention to the similarities between the aims of critical literacy within English and Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC). It then considers subscribing to liberal values in the English classrooms of a plural society and concludes that, as political liberalism is unlikely to be universally endorsed, we need to look elsewhere for a ‘centre’ that will hold us together. The essay suggests that the ‘Tao’, elabor…
A tale of two schools
Drawing primarily upon interview and observation data, the aims, admission policies, and curriculum of two ‘strong’ Christian schools, one in the Netherlands and one in England, are compared and contrasted. Analysis of the beliefs and values of children, parents, and school leaders challenges assumptions about ‘strong’ Christian schools that are shown to be insufficiently discriminating on philosophical and theological grounds. Implications for e…
Christianity and character education
Character education is important within the Christian tradition but tends to be viewed with suspicion by educators who privilege autonomy as the aim of a liberal education. Equally, Christians may have concerns that character education places too great an emphasis upon good works rather than God’s grace. This article reasons that character education need not be indoctrinatory, in the pejorative sense, on the one hand nor conflated with Christiani…
From beliefs to skills
The premise advanced here is that reading is of religious and spiritual significance; consequently, when literacy is secularized, divorced from faith and considered apart from readers’ beliefs and values, there are consequences for learning. It is suggested that current educational policy which legitimates the view that literacy is more concerned with skills (which are often misguidedly regarded as neutral) than beliefs (and interpretation) milit…
Citizenship and Moral Education
Moral and citizenship education are again at the forefront of educational attention with the recent governmental announcements about revisions to the National Curriculum frameworks to 2000 and beyond. This book addresses some of the central issues in moral and citizenship education facing teachers today, embedding practical considerations in a theoretical context and reviewing teaching, learning and assessment strategies. It draws extensively on …
‘Well‐being’ through reading
In this paper reading is conceived as a spiritual gift that can help readers towards an understanding of being. The image of the well and the act of drawing water is employed to illustrate the relation of the spiritual and the aesthetic. The term ‘well‐being’ in relation to reading is used here to draw attention to the importance of ontology in both reading and spiritual education. How readers can practice reading as a spiritual gift is explored …
Belief as an Obstacle to Reading
The basic premise of this article is that the Bible is much neglected within education in general and literature education in particular. Despite being of seminal literary and cultural importance, the Bible is maginalized by teachers and read very little by children in classrooms in both the US and UK. Accounting for this omission from the school curriculum is not a simple matter, for a complex network of beliefs (about reading, teaching, educati…
On Being in English Teaching
Aesthetic Distance and the Spiritual Journey
A central thesis of this paper is that the aesthetic travelled by learners, when they respond aesthetically to literary and visual works of art, can be the territory across which spiritual journeys are made. Examples are, therefore, given of literary and visual works of art that can provide such spiritually significant distance. The potential for children's everyday experiences, in literature and art lessons, to be of spiritual and moral worth is…
Spirituality, Morality and Poetry
This paper illustrates how poetry can play a major role in facilitating adolescents' spiritual and moral development. Examples are given of adolescents' responses to poems, when the pedagogy they experienced was influenced by reader response theory, to illustrate the seminal value of this genre and teaching methodology in fostering spiritual and moral reflection and growth. The link between poetry, spirituality and morality is examined with refer…
Pupils' Poetics
No prominent works on this page.
Spirituality, Morality and Poetry
This paper illustrates how poetry can play a major role in facilitating adolescents' spiritual and moral development. Examples are given of adolescents' responses to poems, when the pedagogy they experienced was influenced by reader response theory, to illustrate the seminal value of this genre and teaching methodology in fostering spiritual and moral reflection and growth. The link between poetry, spirituality and morality is examined with refer…
Pupils' Poetics
Aesthetic Distance and the Spiritual Journey
A central thesis of this paper is that the aesthetic travelled by learners, when they respond aesthetically to literary and visual works of art, can be the territory across which spiritual journeys are made. Examples are, therefore, given of literary and visual works of art that can provide such spiritually significant distance. The potential for children's everyday experiences, in literature and art lessons, to be of spiritual and moral worth is…
Belief as an Obstacle to Reading
The basic premise of this article is that the Bible is much neglected within education in general and literature education in particular. Despite being of seminal literary and cultural importance, the Bible is maginalized by teachers and read very little by children in classrooms in both the US and UK. Accounting for this omission from the school curriculum is not a simple matter, for a complex network of beliefs (about reading, teaching, educati…
On Being in English Teaching
‘Well‐being’ through reading
In this paper reading is conceived as a spiritual gift that can help readers towards an understanding of being. The image of the well and the act of drawing water is employed to illustrate the relation of the spiritual and the aesthetic. The term ‘well‐being’ in relation to reading is used here to draw attention to the importance of ontology in both reading and spiritual education. How readers can practice reading as a spiritual gift is explored …
From beliefs to skills
The premise advanced here is that reading is of religious and spiritual significance; consequently, when literacy is secularized, divorced from faith and considered apart from readers’ beliefs and values, there are consequences for learning. It is suggested that current educational policy which legitimates the view that literacy is more concerned with skills (which are often misguidedly regarded as neutral) than beliefs (and interpretation) milit…
Citizenship and Moral Education
Moral and citizenship education are again at the forefront of educational attention with the recent governmental announcements about revisions to the National Curriculum frameworks to 2000 and beyond. This book addresses some of the central issues in moral and citizenship education facing teachers today, embedding practical considerations in a theoretical context and reviewing teaching, learning and assessment strategies. It draws extensively on …
A tale of two schools
Drawing primarily upon interview and observation data, the aims, admission policies, and curriculum of two ‘strong’ Christian schools, one in the Netherlands and one in England, are compared and contrasted. Analysis of the beliefs and values of children, parents, and school leaders challenges assumptions about ‘strong’ Christian schools that are shown to be insufficiently discriminating on philosophical and theological grounds. Implications for e…
Christianity and character education
Character education is important within the Christian tradition but tends to be viewed with suspicion by educators who privilege autonomy as the aim of a liberal education. Equally, Christians may have concerns that character education places too great an emphasis upon good works rather than God’s grace. This article reasons that character education need not be indoctrinatory, in the pejorative sense, on the one hand nor conflated with Christiani…
Ethical English Teaching
This article begins by drawing attention to the similarities between the aims of critical literacy within English and Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC). It then considers subscribing to liberal values in the English classrooms of a plural society and concludes that, as political liberalism is unlikely to be universally endorsed, we need to look elsewhere for a ‘centre’ that will hold us together. The essay suggests that the ‘Tao’, elabor…
‘The Trees of Knowledge and Life Growing Together’ in the Educational Vision of C.S. Lewis
Peter Medway’s paper ‘English and Enlightenment’ (Changing English, 2010) and David Stevens’ response to it, ‘Critically Enlightened Romantic Values and English Pedagogy: A Response to Peter Medway’ (Changing English, 2011), address the relative merits of the quest for truth and the place of aesthetic response in English. It is suggested here, however, that each paper contains the kernel of a counter-argument to the one being presented and that, …
Mere Education
Conceptualising and testing the Narnian Character Virtue Scales
This paper sets out to examine and to operationalise 12 key character virtues identified within C. S. Lewis’ Narnian texts: courage, curiosity, forgiveness, fortitude, gratitude, hard work, humility, integrity, justice, love, self-control, and wisdom. A pilot study among 56 year eight students (12–13 years of age) generated nine five-item instruments displaying adequate internal consistency reliability, and suggested ways in which the other three…
Evaluating the pilot Narnian Virtues Character Education English Curriculum Project
In order to evaluate the impact of the pilot Narnian Virtues Character Education English Curriculum Project, a pilot sample of 86 year 7 and year 8 students (11 to 13 years of age) completed a battery of tests both before and after participating for six weeks in the programme. The battery of tests comprised 12 Narnian Character Virtue Scales (NCVS) (to assess the degree to which students saw themselves as behaving virtuously), the Knowledge Index…
The future of publicly funded faith schools
This book critically examines the ‘different claims and arguments being made for and against the retention and indeed expansion of Faith schools’ (p. 2) in England and Wales. This is a matter of im
Teaching virtues through literature
Character education through curriculum subjects has taken increasing political importance in England after its inclusion in the school inspection framework. Here we present a pedagogical approach to developing virtue literacy through English Literature. As part of a longitudinal, mixed-methods research project, this article uses empirical evidence from interviews with 26 students to identify and discuss the processes students used in the developm…
Parents’ perspectives on home-based character education activities
This study investigated parents’ perspectives on a taught character education programme implemented with children in their schools and homes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with forty-one parents of secondary school students participating in the Narnian Virtues Character Education English Project. Parents answered questions relating to the curriculum’s home activities which they undertook with their child. A thematic analysis of the da…
Character development through the curriculum
This article reports on the differential impact of a curriculum intervention on students’ understanding and practice of virtue. The research is germane given Ofsted’s new requirement that its inspectors should assess how the curriculum in all schools in England and Wales supports students’ character development. Results are reported here for a total of 1226 eleven- and twelve-year-olds assessed at the beginning and end of their first secondary sc…
Virtue ethics for flourishing leaders
This article builds upon important work on leadership practices and behaviours in schooling. It shows how approaches informed by virtue ethics may enable educational leaders to be increasingly authentic and emotionally intelligent, to build higher-performing teams and ensure more consistent staff and student flourishing. It demonstrates why ‘values’ are not enough and illustrates the merit of ‘virtues’ (operationalised as behaviours) in school cu…
The ‘image of God’ and the schooling of virtue
This article reports how the Judeo-Christian belief that all persons are ‘made in God’s image’ (imago Dei) leads to an egalitarian and generous evaluation of children and young people educated in a group of Christian-ethos schools with no ‘faith-test’ for admission in socio-economically disadvantaged areas of the north of England. The inclusiveness of Christian humanist perspectives, ancient and modern, conceiving of imago Dei as the divine gift …
Philosophy (14 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Pedagogy (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Religious Education and Schools (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Values and Moral Education (8 works) · Curriculum (7 works)