Core values
Core values arise out of what we believe to be important about people, about society and about learning and knowledge. Values inform and shape how the school is organised, how people relate to each other in school, as well as the content and processes of teaching and learning. (Open image!)
Core values are:
principles, fundamental convictions, ideals, standards or life stances which act as general guides to behaviour or as reference points in decision-making or the evaluation of beliefs or action. (Halstead J & Taylor M (1995), Values in Education and Education in Values) .
A core value has many dimensions. These include spiritual, moral, social and cultural dimensions. Values are lived and experienced. Values can be understood intellectually, and they provide a framework for learning and personal development.
There are a number of core values which, in practice, most people and communities agree on and share. These can provide a basis for a school's 'shared values'.
KEY IDEAS
Values help to realise vision
Values provide a key means through which a vision becomes part of the everyday life of a school. 'Values lie at the heart of the school's vision of itself as a community.' (NCC 1993)
- Values can be articulated, lived and acknowledged, by all members of the school community in all aspects of community life.
- All key school policies, including teaching and learning need to specifically address the school's shared core values.
- It should be possible to track these values through all aspects of school life: leadership and management, finance, teaching and learning, curriculum, pastoral care and external relations.
Values matter
The important thing to remember is that all schools promote values all of the time.
In order to be professional and ethical it is important that school leaders are explicit about those values they hold to be most important. Without this clarity it may be that your school is promoting values which undermine things that you hold dear and which may run counter to what you hold to be most important (for example values imposed from outside the school).
At the very least, a lack of explicitness makes it harder to have shared vision and values.
Core values have different dimensions
Core values have a range of differing dimensions and are particularly related to citizenship issues, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils and learning to learn:
- Learning as a lifelong process: critical curiosity, making connections, challenge, making meaning
- Spirituality: developing self-awareness, awareness of others awareness of the world around us, and for some, awareness of a God
- Morality: commitment to living and behaving in certain ways
- Social development: co-operation and emotional literacy
- Cultural development: empathy and valuing difference
- Personal development: self esteem, self efficacy, motivation for learning.
These dimensions are central to the personal and social development of learners. Personal development plus learning and achievement together constitute attainment.
Communities share core values
There are common values shared by all. It is possible for communities to agree on a set of core values that everybody shares. These are then 'our' values rather than values that are imposed from outside.
Common values are values that different groups in a society can agree upon. There is evidence that human communities across cultures share similar basic core values. Sometimes these shared values are known as 'virtues'. School communities can identify and agree a set of core values at a local level. These can therefore have the authority of consensus for that school and its community.
The National Curriculum carries a statement of agreed values formed from a consultation by the National Forum on Values in 1996. You can read this statement here.
In October 1996, The Institute for Global Ethics conducted a Global Values Survey at the State of the World Forum's annual meeting in San Francisco. The 272 participants represented 40 countries and more than 50 different faith communities. The same three values were within each respondents' top five in almost 60% of cases.
Perspectival values may differ
Values don't arise out of thin air. They emerge from shared worldviews and belief systems. Hence there are perspectival values which are drawn from particular religious and philosophical traditions.
Different religious and secular communities will have differing beliefs and worldviews which shape their understanding of the world. These religious and philosophical traditions offer particular perspectives on shared values.
For example, most communities will 'value others' in someway. A religious community might value other people because they believe each person is made in the image of God, whereas a secular community might value others because human beings are the highest form of life on earth, which all deserve to be given a voice. Most school communities will have a variety of worldview perspectives within them.
The National Forum on Values in Education and the Community in 1996 recognised that there is diversity in society about the belief systems that shape and inform our shared values. Most western schooling systems recognise and embrace diversity of types of educational provision within a common framework. Valuing difference at school and classroom level is an important aspect of values education and citizenship, and it is an important part of a healthy democratic society.
Core values underpin citizenship & PHSE
A community owned values framework is a key part of leadership for citizenship education and PHSE. The Citizenship Teachers Guide stresses the importance of 'clear whole-school values that have been discussed by all members of the school community'.
