CRITIQUE PAPER

Teaching Values Education in Schools: The Attitudes, Beliefs and Practices of

Teachers
Differences and similarities between the two contexts are discussed and
conclusions as to the relative importance and influence of teachers to the
development and delivery of Values Education within present and future teacher
education curricula are drawn.
Introduction
This paper addresses some of the many issues raised in the larger research
project. The original study, looking at teachers' understanding of, attitude to and
practice in the area of Values Education, covered practitioners in five countries
(Australia, Ireland, Israel, Slovenia and England) and sought to place the attitudes
of teachers in this study towards Values Education to one of a series of
philosophical stances put forward by Hill (1991). In completing this study the
present authors noted particularly the acknowledged and unacknowledged
influences on teachers of their own cultural and formative heritage and their
frequent unawareness of the source or consequences of these influences. We
therefore embarked on a comparative study using part of our material. The focus
selected here covers the principles that underlie a teacher's attitude to values
education and the informal and formal methods they use to engender these in
the classroom. This paper takes this perspective from a purely Irish and English
viewpoint. In our report we concentrate on the values and practices of a cohort of
primary (first level) teachers and address our remarks to those involved in the
development of teacher education in Ireland and the UK, including the teachers
themselves. The Sample Selected The population surveyed in both parts of the
study under consideration in this 1357-4019/98/03 0115-12 $10.00/0 ©1998 J.
Stephenson & M. Killeavy CHILDREN'S SOCIAL AND ECONOMICS EDUCATION Vol.
3, No. 3, 1998 115 116 Children's Social and Economics Education paper consisted
of a cohort of twenty qualified practising primary teachers in each country. Those
from England were all employed in state rather than privately funded schools; in
Ireland the position was similar in that all schools received state support but were
of course, as is the norm, affiliated to and supported by one or other of the
religious bodies. Of this group of 40 teachers, 15 of those from England and all 20
from Ireland were taking part in two separate degree programmes leading to a
higher award at the respective universities. The gender balance of the sample in
both cases closely reflected the balance found in primary schools within the host
countries. The age profile of the teachers was similarly reflective, in the case of
England ages ranged from 36 to 45+, the Irish teachers tended to be younger,
although all had to have five years' teaching experience before registering for a
master's award. The majority of these first-level teachers had an honours degree.
Some had further qualifications. In both cases teachers were funding their further
study themselves and could be said to demonstrate, by combining study with
their continuing job in schools, a higher degree of commitment than that found in
the average primary school teacher. In this their actions may have some points
which could be expanded for the use of the generality of teachers. All but one
female member (England) of the whole cohort were white and all were leading
what could be termed a middle or lower-middle-class lifestyle, though covering
differing backgrounds originating from a variety of urban, suburban and rural
environments. The schools at which the teachers taught were chosen to give a
spread of school size and geographical/social area, although the teachers were
self-selected in the sense that they volunteered to take part in the project.
Anonymity was guaranteed. Some teachers gave partial answers to questions in
the questionnaire and not all teachers took part in the second (interview) or third
(observation) phase of the study.
The Research Methodology
Primarily a qualitative and a triangulation approach was taken, involving the
administering of a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and classroom
observation (Cohen & Manion, 1994; Open University, 1988). The original
questionnaire had five open-ended, softly focused questions, of which we will
consider data from three, and was administered to all 40 teachers. A content
analysis of the answers followed and then the data were analysed via a computer
program, 'Hypercal' for the English responses and SPSS (Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences, Norusis, 1990) for the Irish. We shall take data from the
questionnaire responses, backed up by other findings, as the basis of this paper.
Semi-structured interviews and discussion with a sample of the teachers (15 in
England, 8 in Ireland) made up the second stage of the investigation. In this way
further details on ambiguous, unusual or popular topics raised in the
questionnaire were explored and collected. One of the interview sessions held
with the English teachers was a group discussion which involved twelve of the
participants of the award-bearing course. This gave an opportunity for the
correlation of questionnaire responses with orally expressed views, often revised
or restated in the delivery, reflected upon following the responses and remarks of
the peer Teachers and Values Education in Ireland and UK 117 group. All other
interviews were with individuals. Classroom observations of a small number of
teachers from each country (England 3, Ireland 1) made up the third aspect of
information gathering. Classrooms were selected to cover age phase, social area,
size and methodological differences. An attempt was made to minimize the
'observer effect' by making the sessions part of a series of visits for other
purposes.
Contextual Considerations
At this point it is important to consider some aspects of the analysis which were
specific to the context in the country in which they were carried out. Certain
conditions prevail in the two societies which may or may not have a significant
bearing on some of the responses and therefore arguments and conclusions
which follow. Aspects of the analysis pertain in both countries, not necessarily
leading to the same results; others are peculiar to the home situation of the
respective countries. Perhaps the most fundamental was a common area, the
basic subject - Values Education; at the time neither England nor Ireland had a
formal subject in the curriculum with the title 'Values Education', although
Citizenship Education is shortly to form part of the curriculum in English Schools.
This raised subsequent problems for both sets of teachers in that most were
unable to define satisfactorily what the subject meant in formal terms. We think it
fair to say that for the majority this dilemma remained unsolved. Various
suggestions were made as to where 'values' might be taught, amongst them
religious education and personal and social education. The common ground
included the tradition of primary school teachers being individually committed to
the teaching of Religious Education to their classes. This is the influence of
change. In common with most other countries in the developing world, part of
the impetus for the current debate about 'values' has been the perceived decline
in moral and ethical standards within the general population. The old 'certainties'
can no longer be relied upon, it is felt, and there is the perception that a once
virtually universal 'national' set of agreed standards of belief, behaviour and
practice are at best under threat and at worst have already been dismissed. There
is no doubt that both these sets of experienced practising teachers were well
aware of the new, challenging and sometimes threatening demands that are
being placed upon formal and informal education as a result of cultural change.
118 Children's Social and Economics Education We come here to the differences
in degree and time scale between the experiences of change so far impinging on
the educational systems of the two countries, directly and indirectly, as a result of
changes in society. If we stay with our previous area of common issue, that of
faith, belief and practice displayed through the curriculum in schools and the
actions of the teachers within formal and informal teaching, then we find change
in both countries. In Ireland teachers are aware of certain fundamental changes
which will affect the values aspect of Irish education. The development of the new
curriculum areas will reflect the growing concern on the part of the state to take
responsibility for the delineation of the values which are inherent in the new
subject areas of the curriculum. Education and schooling have not been immune
from this trend. Parents no longer necessarily think 'teacher knows best'
particularly if that teacher, either as an individual, or more often as the
representative of a section of society and set of values, reflects a set of values to
which they do not subscribe. In this context and with the constraints, or support,
of the fairly prescriptive national curriculum either curtailing or acting as an
excuse for any lack of reflection or action on the part of the teachers when
considering their own stance to 'values', teachers are now faced with a second
intervention by the state. The inclusion of Citizenship Education into the
curriculum (scheduled for 2000) could be seen as an attempt to redress the
balance between all or some of the interest groups within present-day society, or
as state indoctrination of the values they wish to inculcate into the population, or
any point on the continuum between. Turning to Ireland and the impending
curriculum and philosophical changes, many of the teachers were aware of the
changes in the political culture of the state and were striving to accommodate
more traditional perspectives to the often changing attitudes and outlooks which
their pupils bring from their homes. Findings from the Questionnaire The teachers
were asked to state three essential principles upon which they made their
decisions with regard to the teaching and development of values in the
curriculum programme.