Date

7-21-2026

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Janet Vosen

Keywords

Virtue, Arete, Paideia, Phronesis, Eudaimonia, Classical Christian, Cultivation

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of educational leaders in classical Christian schools with the cultivation of virtue as the primary purpose of education. The concept guiding this study is Aristotelian virtue ethics, from which spring virtue theory and positive organizational scholarship. The Aristotelian worldview drives the assertion among classical Christian educators that education is defined as the cultivation of virtue. The central research question for this study is “What are the lived experiences of classical Christian educational leaders in cultivating virtue in their students?” The study of classical Christian educational leaders’ views about the cultivation of virtue in education was approached using Moustakas’s transcendental phenomenology design. Moustakas’s design expresses his preference for research that is characterized by subjective openness and avoids research suppositions. It is this open quality, which Moustakas and others call epoché, that drove, supported, and shaped this proposed research. A series of interviews with educational leaders was conducted at each research participant’s school to enable leaders to describe their lived experiences with the cultivation of virtue in the education of their students. The result of this research was a rich and comprehensive description of the lived experiences of classical Christian educational leaders with the cultivation of virtue in their schools. The key takeaway from the research was the integral nature of virtue within education. The overarching themes from participant interviews, focus groups, and journal prompts were Virtue Cultivation, Lived Experiences, Perceptions About Virtue, and Strategies for Success.

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