A Qualitative Examination of Character Strengths and Virtues in Intergroup Reconciliation

This paper argues that the VIA Classification of Strengths and Virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) provides a useful foundation for Character Education (CE) generally and an effective common language for the understanding of Reconciliation specifically. It presents recent literature examining the prototypical elements of CE (McGrath, 2018), and the application of the VIA Classification to the study of peace and inter-group conflict (Niemiec, 2022). It then goes on to report seven interviews with experienced practitioners working in three reconciliation centres (Rose Castle Foundation; the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation; and Reconcilers Together), located in the United Kingdom, Canada, Egypt, and Belgium. Qualitative analysis of the data yielded 14 themes, and 32 sub-themes or codes, related to the use of Character Strengths in the work of reconciliation. While the participants represented different approaches to the reconciliation process, their ability to easily identify constructs from the VIA Classification in the practice of reconciliation supports the usefulness of the VIA nomenclature in providing a common language for both the understanding of and educating for reconciliation.