Values in Education
Graham Haydon
Continuum International Publishing Group
London: 2006
Reviewer: Belle Wallace, Director, TASC International
Graham Haydon’s book reinforces what all good teachers believe and practice - that the human qualities developed in a caring school form the basis of lifelong values that are developed through teacher pupil interaction and mutual respect and regard. Teachers are far more than competent technical deliverers of prescribed curriculum content: they are - whether they accept the role or not - role models for young people. Haydon argues that although many teachers do accept this important role of modelling and influencing young people’s moral development; many newly qualified teachers perceive their job to be developing mental capacities or teaching a subject. The new teachers have been trained to deliver the content with little or no training in educational psychology which discusses the processes of teaching and learning.
Haydon examines the link between the aims of education and values; he first asks us to consider the difference between ‘education’ and ‘indoctrination’. He suggests that ‘education’ is a process of opening up ideas to reasoned debate and argument; while ‘indoctrination’ is the imposition of ideas without reasoned debate and argument. While some aspects of education involve training, Haydon suggests that the major purpose of education is to open minds to new ideas and understanding: schools exist to combine both these aspects.
In considering the intertwined role of the school as a place of education and training, he questions where the development of values resides. He defines ‘values’ as a continuum of personal beliefs beginning with self-respect, self-discipline and respect for others; leading to, for example, a sense of honesty, integrity, beauty and diversity.
The text explores the possible differences between personal, social and universal values; and whether moral values are best taught through religious education, and/or personal and social education (PSE). One clear idea emerges in that the United Kingdom is now a multi-cultural society with pluralist values - hence, surely learners need education for understanding and tolerating the diversity of values that exists in this country. The question then arises - is there a set of universal values that overrides the diversity and difference?
Haydon suggests three overarching values: compromise, tolerance and respect. These are indeed big lifelong values that need mediating and modelling in all walks of life - the school is but one scenario. However, teachers still remain influential in pupils’ lives and whether teachers accept the role or not, pupils will absorb the essential values teachers practice in their classrooms.
This text makes for exciting and refreshing discussion in the current world of measurement and statistical evidence of outcomes in education. Consideration of philosophical ideas in education adds a vital component of depth to any teacher’s professionalism.
GEI Vol 23 No 3
