JUSTICE | VIRTUE | FACILITATOR GUIDE

This facilitator guide presents a short, reflective, evidence-informed facilitated workshop on cultivating justice in higher-education and student-support contexts. Drawing on the VIA Character Strengths framework, justice is approached as a collective character capacity rather than a rule-based or disciplinary construct, comprising the strengths of fairness, teamwork, and leadership (Niemiec, 2018). The workshop is designed for tutors, mentors, and student-facing facilitators who support students navigating shared learning spaces, group dynamics, and institutional demands. Rather than framing disengagement or conflict as individual deficits, the session helps participants recognise moments where learning, participation, or persistence are shaped by perceptions of fairness, inclusion, and shared responsibility. Structured reflection, paired discussion, and brief experiential activities are used to surface how justice-related strengths influence students’ sense of belonging, psychological safety, and willingness to participate under pressure. Emphasis is placed on supporting the optimal use of justice without becoming rigid, moralising, or punitive, and on maintaining clear role boundaries in non-clinical educational settings (Niemiec, 2020). The guide offers a practical, time-bound (15–20 minute) format that can be integrated into tutor training, mentoring programmes, and broader learning or leadership development initiatives. It contributes an applied, strengths-based approach to student support by reframing common challenges in group learning environments as justice moments, and by equipping facilitators to foster fair, participatory, and psychologically safe learning climates. Learning Outcomes For participants By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to: • Recognise justice as a collective character capacity that supports engagement, belonging, and learning • Identify situations where student disengagement may reflect perceived unfairness rather than lack of motivation or ability • Name and recognise the three justice strengths, fairness, teamwork, and leadership as they appear in student life • Reflect on how fairness, voice, and shared responsibility shape participation and persistence • Consider how to support justice without becoming rigid, punitive, or adversarial For facilitators By the end of the workshop, facilitators will be able to: • Model reflective and ethical use of justice-related character strengths in a non-clinical role • Link justice explicitly to psychological safety, collaboration, and learning climate • Distinguish between fairness and sameness in student-facing contexts • Use VIA Character Strengths language in a contextual, inclusive, and non-moralising way • Maintain appropriate role boundaries while enabling participation and shared responsibility