About encoding rails 3

i have 2 application..
first in rails 1 or 2 i think, but another apps in rails 3
apps 1 and 2 is interconected with same database..
in the view on app 1 there is special character "≤" and it's look normally in view, but in the field of database it turn to "≤"
and when i take that field from database to another app (app in Rails 3), on view it just look same with database "≤"..

How to encode "≤" from database to "≤" on view in rails 3?