There is a deficit in character education research in Latin America and a lack of clarity about conceptual issues relevant to values and virtues. This lack of conceptual clarity has practical importance. The research sought to investigate empirically how school managers and teachers understand and practice character education, with particular attention to the distinction between educating values and virtues. The study was carried out during the first semester of 2022 on a sample of 160 schools in 17 countries, mainly in Christian schools in Spain and Mexico. The results show that there are differences according to the type of school and country. There are important findings regarding the concept of virtue and its relation to the concept of value, which virtues and values are most relevant for schools to teach, and which are the most used strategies in character education programmes. The research points to moral education as a central theme in schools, which considers both virtue and values education. There is a genuine interest on training teachers in virtue education. The study contributes to a better comprehension of moral education (particularly in character education) in Spain and Latin America. It provides an understanding of the differences and similarities between virtue and values education in the minds of educators. It offers information on the main practical strategies linked to character education as well as reflections on how to carry out character education in Latin America. Finally, the study offers a comparison between the paradigm of virtue education and the paradigm of values education that can be inferred from the responses of school managers and teachers. These are two competing but compatible paradigms of moral education. Our proposal is that there should be a constructive dialogue between paradigms and even a synthesis.

Teaching leadership is a key factor for students’ learning and flourishing, and it occurs in an asymmetrical and interpersonal relationship. This research seeks to characterize the teaching leadership of high school teachers through the influence they exert on their students. It is not based on the teacher’s self-perception but on the experience that the students have had. For this purpose, a qualitative study was carried out in Spain with 200 first-year university students in which they answered four questions about the teacher who most influenced them during their high school. The results point to five leadership traits or styles that are not mutually exclusive: empathetic leadership, comforting leadership, motivating leadership, exemplary leadership, and wise leadership. In addition, moments of weakness and vulnerability in students are those that most favour the influence of the teacher in their lives, encouraging vital learning in them. This study highlights the importance of teacher leadership for student character education.