Character and values education has gained importance in many societies since the first moments of the emergence of the phenomenon of education, and moreover, it has formed the basis and ultimate goal of educational processes. While values education focuses more on the adoption of the current values in society, character education focuses on universal virtues such as wisdom, justice, love, courage, honesty, etc. Character education is a sociological process by nature. Character development in students is under the influence of family, school and social environment as well as individual characteristics. Character education is based on the socialization of the individual. In this respect, a good individual is a sufficiently socialized individual. School and family constitute the basis for the formation and transmission of moral codes in the individual. In this respect, while some educational sociologists consider this socialization process as an automatic process outside the individual’s preferences, some contemporary sociologists have put forward the concept of individual character with a less deterministic perspective. Character development in children is a multifaceted process. Therefore, trying to explain the character formation process only with individual themes without focusing on the social foundations may cause a decrease in the functionality of character education programs at schools. For this reason, it is important for educators to have information about the social dimensions of the character education process. The fact that all educators have a certain level of awareness/knowledge about the social dimension of the concept of character and character education is also an issue that needs to be emphasized. Education curricula should not handle the character acquisition process in students unilaterally, and family education should definitely be planned in schools. In order to achieve this goal, it would be appropriate for schools cooperate with the family in character education and make the family involve more in the process. It is also important for the school to go beyond cooperation in character education and take on a compensatory role. The aim of this study is to focus on the social foundations of character education and to determine the impact of the factors such as family, school and friends that affect the character education process.

Character, character education, social foundations of character