Creating a Culture of Character Growth: Developing Faculty Character and Competence at the United States Military Academy

Background: Institutions of higher education, specifically service academies, interested in developing character in their students/cadets should consider creating a culture of character growth to accomplish their task. One potential way to do this is to focus on developing faculty character along with character competence as it relates to student/cadet character formation. Objective: At the United States Military Academy, we recently piloted a character faculty development series for Center for Enhanced Performance faculty aimed at improving faculty character formation, increasing faculty competence with respect to developing cadet character through one-on-one relationships, and integrating character formation into their teaching. The goal of this project was to assess feasibility and acceptability of the series. Methods: The Center for Enhanced Performance faculty experienced a three-part character faculty development series: (1) Faculty character formation, (2) Developing cadet character through one-on-one relationships, and (3) Integrating character into the classroom. To assess feasibility and acceptability of the series, a survey was sent to faculty after completion. Results: A total of nine faculty members completed the survey and found the training worthwhile, that it increased their confidence in developing cadets’ character and integrating character formation into their teaching, along with each character formation tool being useful. Conclusions: Character faculty developing series should be tried and can be feasible and acceptable to faculty.