Introduction
The term 'ethos' is perhaps one of the most vague and ill-defined words in use in education. Never the less the 'ethos' of the school is something that parents, teachers and pupils consider to be important. How people feel and think about the place they learn and teach in makes a difference to how they do their job. 'This is a really good place to learn/teach' is a view that matters, and makes a difference to the ways in which people grow and develop within the institution. Pupils and teachers are quick to identify practices that do not measure up to the espoused values of the organisation, and will make judgments about policies and practices which are rooted in their own histories, feelings and intuitions as well as in the rational merits of a policy or practice.
Lived values - whole people
Core values, then, are lived as well as taught. Truth, justice, valuing others, or any other of those core ethical values which recur as ideals within schools and communities, are expressed through action and behaviour as well as through rational definition and through human aspiration. They are polyvalent in their meaning and in their application and are they are not 'free floating' concepts that are divorced from human history, and the stories that make up the lives of individuals in schools. Indeed, in an explicit or implicit manner, they constitute the 'life world' of schools.
The commitment of individual teachers and leaders in school to personal development and growth makes an important contribution to the 'ethos' of the school. People who are emotionally closed, unable to take responsibility for their own feelings and responses and who always locate problems at everybody else's door do not encourage the sort of open learning community in which spiritual and moral development can be fostered. Willingness to acknowledge mistakes, to take personal responsibility for change and commitment to open communication with the other are all important foundations for ethically healthy schools. Children, especially, are tuned in to lack of congruence in adults and will respond positively to teachers who are authentic, respectful and warm. Rogers argues that the three conditions for (Rogers and Stevens. 1973) personal growth in 'becoming more fully human' are
The term 'ethos' is perhaps one of the most vague and ill-defined words in use in education. Never the less the 'ethos' of the school is something that parents, teachers and pupils consider to be important. How people feel and think about the place they learn and teach in makes a difference to how they do their job. 'This is a really good place to learn/teach' is a view that matters, and makes a difference to the ways in which people grow and develop within the institution. Pupils and teachers are quick to identify practices that do not measure up to the espoused values of the organisation, and will make judgments about policies and practices which are rooted in their own histories, feelings and intuitions as well as in the rational merits of a policy or practice.
Lived values - whole people
Core values, then, are lived as well as taught. Truth, justice, valuing others, or any other of those core ethical values which recur as ideals within schools and communities, are expressed through action and behaviour as well as through rational definition and through human aspiration. They are polyvalent in their meaning and in their application and are they are not 'free floating' concepts that are divorced from human history, and the stories that make up the lives of individuals in schools. Indeed, in an explicit or implicit manner, they constitute the 'life world' of schools.
The commitment of individual teachers and leaders in school to personal development and growth makes an important contribution to the 'ethos' of the school. People who are emotionally closed, unable to take responsibility for their own feelings and responses and who always locate problems at everybody else's door do not encourage the sort of open learning community in which spiritual and moral development can be fostered. Willingness to acknowledge mistakes, to take personal responsibility for change and commitment to open communication with the other are all important foundations for ethically healthy schools. Children, especially, are tuned in to lack of congruence in adults and will respond positively to teachers who are authentic, respectful and warm. Rogers argues that the three conditions for (Rogers and Stevens. 1973) personal growth in 'becoming more fully human' are
- Unconditional positive regard
- Authenticity
- Empathy
It may be that these three factors are also critical conditions for learning and growth of all sorts, including in schools where the process of ‘humanization’ is never far from
Values, Narratives and Worldviews
The core values identified in the case study school were consciously rooted into a particular belief system or worldview - that of the Judeo-Christian tradition. All values are rooted into belief systems of some sort - they are not independent and separate from facts, worldviews, ideologies, attitudes and beliefs, feelings, histories and life scripts. In contemporary society there are many values which will be shared at some level by all worldviews, ideologies and belief systems, although the source of those values may be different. For example all but one of the case study school's values are likely to be shared by all worldviews and most religions, but their interpretation and the ways in which they cohere into an overall story will be different in a secular, Jewish, Islamic, Sikh, Steiner or Christian school. An understanding of the larger narratives, or worldview frameworks, within which differing core values cohere, provides an important critical framework for discussion and debate in schools, between schools and in the wider plural society. Rather than seeing ideologies or worldviews as impediments to education, which have to be left behind at the door of the learning institution, an appropriately critical understanding of the notion that no individual or institution or community approaches learning from a 'value neutral' perspective will enhance learning. This is because worldview frameworks, with their inherent narratives and explanations, provide an important strategy for the critical assimilation of knowledge because they provide a system within which new information can be located and made meaningful. They may well enhance the skills of critical thinking in the field of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development as well as critical thinking in and between the disciplines themselves. An understanding of the larger worldviews or narratives, which shape contemporary culture, may also be an important means of educating for meaning and purpose, and a vehicle through which young learners can begin to identify their own worldview commitments and values.
Whose spirituality, whose values, whose narratives?
The set of values known as the SCAA values, which arose from the National Forum for Values in Education and the Community during 1996, represented a significant consensus on the sorts of values which schools could and should be promoting and nurturing in young people. Despite a great deal of debate and skepticism, and much misunderstanding, taken at face value, that consultation was a significant landmark in education policy. It indicated that there were ethical values which society believed to be important, that were to some extent shared, and that schools could confidently articulate and utilize in their curriculum and organisation. This was significant for a profession where the idea of indoctrination was, and still is, the antithesis of education, and where the notion of allowing young people to come to their own judgments about spiritual and moral issues was and still is, an important value in itself for many in the teaching profession.
What the SCAA forum did not do, purposely, was to engage in debate about the source of those values - about the belief systems, worldviews, ideologies within which those values can be located. The fact was, and still is, that there would be no
Values as organising principles
In the case study school, the particular understanding of the nature of core values, as elaborated here, provided a means of integrating a whole school approach to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils and to citizenship education. A set of, in this case, nine core values, owned and articulated by the community provided a powerful integrating and interdisciplinary vehicle for organising a whole school framework. At the heart of any school is its distinctive vision and values. That vision, significantly expressed in its core values, can be articulated and practiced in all aspects of school life and organisation, and thus it can be monitored, evaluated and reviewed.
To summarise some key ideas about values, arising from work in the case study school:
The location of values in school organisation
The following table, drawn from various sources, indicates the central place which a school's vision and values have in determining the ethos, or the climate of the school, and thus the nature of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils;
the government, the LEA, or the whim of the headteacher, but in the distinctive vision and values of this particular learning community. That vision provides a third critical voice in the dilemmas of policy making and change in schools.
Whole School Policies
In developing new policies, or in reviewing existing ones, a critical question has to do with the manner in which the policy itself is consistent with, and expresses particular aspects of the school's vision and core values. This is more" than simply a paper exercise, and can lead to serious professional reflection on both theory and practice that in turn can lead to improvement and change. For example, many schools will value the child as a unique individual, worth of care, consideration, nurture and equal access to learning opportunities. In developing teaching and learning policies in such schools, the question is how does our approach to teaching and learning reflect what we value about the learner? Does it take into account, for example, multiple intelligence theory with its maxim of'how are you smart?' rather than 'how smart are you?' Does it take into account the notion of preferred learning styles? What sort of critical engagement with knowledge does our teaching strategy aim for? The ways in which a school answers these questions has implications for the school's approach to differentiation, to assessment and reporting and to the role of teacher - as instructor, facilitator of learning, guide or transmitter of facts. Each key school policy can be subject to critical questions in this way and the authority for change is not located in
The school's vision and core values should be evident in:
Values, Narratives and Worldviews
The core values identified in the case study school were consciously rooted into a particular belief system or worldview - that of the Judeo-Christian tradition. All values are rooted into belief systems of some sort - they are not independent and separate from facts, worldviews, ideologies, attitudes and beliefs, feelings, histories and life scripts. In contemporary society there are many values which will be shared at some level by all worldviews, ideologies and belief systems, although the source of those values may be different. For example all but one of the case study school's values are likely to be shared by all worldviews and most religions, but their interpretation and the ways in which they cohere into an overall story will be different in a secular, Jewish, Islamic, Sikh, Steiner or Christian school. An understanding of the larger narratives, or worldview frameworks, within which differing core values cohere, provides an important critical framework for discussion and debate in schools, between schools and in the wider plural society. Rather than seeing ideologies or worldviews as impediments to education, which have to be left behind at the door of the learning institution, an appropriately critical understanding of the notion that no individual or institution or community approaches learning from a 'value neutral' perspective will enhance learning. This is because worldview frameworks, with their inherent narratives and explanations, provide an important strategy for the critical assimilation of knowledge because they provide a system within which new information can be located and made meaningful. They may well enhance the skills of critical thinking in the field of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development as well as critical thinking in and between the disciplines themselves. An understanding of the larger worldviews or narratives, which shape contemporary culture, may also be an important means of educating for meaning and purpose, and a vehicle through which young learners can begin to identify their own worldview commitments and values.
Whose spirituality, whose values, whose narratives?
The set of values known as the SCAA values, which arose from the National Forum for Values in Education and the Community during 1996, represented a significant consensus on the sorts of values which schools could and should be promoting and nurturing in young people. Despite a great deal of debate and skepticism, and much misunderstanding, taken at face value, that consultation was a significant landmark in education policy. It indicated that there were ethical values which society believed to be important, that were to some extent shared, and that schools could confidently articulate and utilize in their curriculum and organisation. This was significant for a profession where the idea of indoctrination was, and still is, the antithesis of education, and where the notion of allowing young people to come to their own judgments about spiritual and moral issues was and still is, an important value in itself for many in the teaching profession.
What the SCAA forum did not do, purposely, was to engage in debate about the source of those values - about the belief systems, worldviews, ideologies within which those values can be located. The fact was, and still is, that there would be no
Values as organising principles
In the case study school, the particular understanding of the nature of core values, as elaborated here, provided a means of integrating a whole school approach to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils and to citizenship education. A set of, in this case, nine core values, owned and articulated by the community provided a powerful integrating and interdisciplinary vehicle for organising a whole school framework. At the heart of any school is its distinctive vision and values. That vision, significantly expressed in its core values, can be articulated and practiced in all aspects of school life and organisation, and thus it can be monitored, evaluated and reviewed.
To summarise some key ideas about values, arising from work in the case study school:
- Each of the school's core values has a spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspect to it.
- These core values cohere within a larger narrative worldview framework.
- Most of the values will be shared by most of society and therefore also by teachers
and pupils who do not share the Christian faith. - Dialogue is a key modus operandi for values education, rather than precise philosophical
or religious definitions agreed within a community.
The location of values in school organisation
The following table, drawn from various sources, indicates the central place which a school's vision and values have in determining the ethos, or the climate of the school, and thus the nature of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils;
the government, the LEA, or the whim of the headteacher, but in the distinctive vision and values of this particular learning community. That vision provides a third critical voice in the dilemmas of policy making and change in schools.
Whole School Policies
In developing new policies, or in reviewing existing ones, a critical question has to do with the manner in which the policy itself is consistent with, and expresses particular aspects of the school's vision and core values. This is more" than simply a paper exercise, and can lead to serious professional reflection on both theory and practice that in turn can lead to improvement and change. For example, many schools will value the child as a unique individual, worth of care, consideration, nurture and equal access to learning opportunities. In developing teaching and learning policies in such schools, the question is how does our approach to teaching and learning reflect what we value about the learner? Does it take into account, for example, multiple intelligence theory with its maxim of'how are you smart?' rather than 'how smart are you?' Does it take into account the notion of preferred learning styles? What sort of critical engagement with knowledge does our teaching strategy aim for? The ways in which a school answers these questions has implications for the school's approach to differentiation, to assessment and reporting and to the role of teacher - as instructor, facilitator of learning, guide or transmitter of facts. Each key school policy can be subject to critical questions in this way and the authority for change is not located in
The school's vision and core values should be evident in:
- The vision and mission statement
- Strategic aims and objectives
- All key policies
- Subject area policies
- Schemes of work
- The quality of relationships within the community.
- Teaching and learning strategies
- Lesson planning and assessment
- The rituals, customs, symbols, imagery and structure of school life
- The management structures of the school
- Prospectus/Publicity
- Staff Induction/Student Induction
The Silence of the Curriculum
Throughout the case study, in the consultation and the investigation, an overwhelming silence pervaded any discussion about values and the content of the curriculum. Values were understood to be present in the culture of the school, its organisational practices and in the quality of relationships, but as far as the curriculum was concerned, there was silence.
One explanation of this is that the curriculum is seen increasingly to be a 'given', something imposed by government through the National Curriculum, which leaves very little room for teacher discretion and therefore change or adaptation. Teachers have been overwhelmed with changes throughout the years of reform, and those changes pervade the 'what' and the 'how' questions of teaching and learning, leaving very little space for the 'why' questions. At a very basic level, teachers could be seen to be mere technicians of the government's agenda - which is a very subtle but powerful form of de-professionalisation.
A second explanation is that teachers trained in the second half of the 20th century have been powerfully influenced by the thinking of educationalists who themselves have been shaped by the ideas and thought forms of modernity, with its focus on rationality, and its separation of fact from value. Hirst and Peters,(Hirst 1974) more or less standard reading in teacher training colleges for many years, developed an approach to knowledge which explicitly set up the rationality of each form of knowledge as the final arbiter in human affairs, and argued that religious belief was irrelevant to the forms of knowledge and thus to the subjects of the curriculum. The belief, therefore, in the neutrality of the curriculum has a powerful pedigree in custom and practice. Values, beliefs, and spiritual and moral development have all been conveniently relegated to the private and the personal, leaving the public domain of knowledge and the curriculum devoid of such critique, and fragmented into segments of knowledge without a coherent way of putting it all together.
These views are no longer tenable - the myth of neutrality in the curriculum has been shown to be unsupportable. Bottery (Bottery 1990)argues a strong case for the dependency of facts upon values and of values upon facts. One cannot for example make a serious evaluation about foetal research or nuclear deterrence without knowing the factual background. However at the same time the notion that there are facts that are solid, permanent and unchangeable is a popular myth that needs to be challenged if values are to be dealt with fully within education. Historical 'facts' for example are selected because of prior values about what is important. "Facts' are plucked from obscurity to fame because of their contribution to an overall scheme' (ibid p47). The area of scientific enquiry is also dependent upon a prior scheme of values, which poses the questions as well as the hypotheses and selects which facts are important and which are not. There are serious criticisms of the objectivity of the methodology of scientific enquiry ((Kuhn 1970) (Feyerabend 1975) (Lakatos 1978; Polanyi 1958; Popper 1970)which render it less than purely objective. Indeed it would rest somewhere between Bottery's classification of personal and social levels of objectivity. He claims that there is no area of human knowledge that can claim to have total objectivity - science and all other areas of knowledge are at best tentative and changeable.
Even mathematics, which has traditionally been viewed as the paradigm of certain knowledge, consisting of absolute and unchallengeable truths, has been subject to severe criticism. Ernest (Ernest 1991) discusses the relationship between philosophy and mathematics and proposes the view that mathematical truth is fallible and corrigible, and can never be regarded as beyond revision and correction. He then goes on to show how different educational ideologies promote different views of mathematics, and in turn these lead to often very different teaching and learning styles, schemes of work, and curricular materials within the area of mathematics.
Given the silence from the teachers in relation to values and the curriculum in the case study school, the project went on to focus on the curriculum itself, rather than on other aspects of school life. It is to the curriculum that we turn in chapter fiven