| This dissertation examined the perceptions of Washington state educational leaders on character education through student leadership development, citizenship training, and service learning in public high schools. Changes throughout previous generations have resulted in varying viewpoints on character education in the overall strategy of meeting educational objectives. The literature suggested that it was important for any character development program to be an explicit, dynamic, and school wide mission in which the educational leaders and the supported community were in agreement on the need for character education.; The research questions addressed the perceptions of the study participants on: (1) the relationships between student leadership development, citizenship training, and service learning; (2) the role public education should have in student leadership development, citizenship training, and service learning; (3) the need for student leadership development, and service learning for all students; (4) the responsibility of the public school system to produce good citizens; and (5) the responsibility of the public school system to prepare all students for leadership roles. The participants were from a random sample of educational leaders at the state, district and high school level, in Washington State. Data were collected about eighteen issues related to character education through student leadership development, citizenship training, and service learning at the secondary level and analyzed using descriptive statistics and other statistical tests such as ANOVA, Fisher's PLSD, and chi-square to determine significant differences among the perceptions of the participants.; Participants agreed that student leadership development, citizenship training and service learning should be provided for all students. Although most indicated that leadership development should not take priority over citizenship training or service learning, leadership development was described as a major component of both citizenship and service learning programs. Based on these and other findings, one of the recommendations was a long-term study to determine (1) whether one program is more appropriate than the other, (2) the possibility of effectively teaching students one without the other, and (3) whether character education results in long term moral and ethical behavior. |
