Some revision of public schooling history is necessary to challenge the dominant mythology that public schools were established on the grounds of values-neutrality. In fact, those responsible for the foundations of public education in Australia were sufficiently pragmatic to know that its success relied on its charter being in accord with public sentiment. Part of the pragmatism was in convincing those whose main experience of education had been through some form of church-based education that state-based education was capable of meeting the same ends. Hence, the documents of the 1870s and 1880s that contained the charters of the various state and territory systems witness to a breadth of vision about the scope of education. Beyond the standard goals of literacy and numeracy, education was said to be capable of assuring personal morality for each individual and a suitable citizenry for the soon-to-be new nation. As an instance, the NSW Public Instr- tion Act of 1880 (cf. NSW, 1912), under the rubric of “religious teaching”, stressed the need for students to be inculcated into the values of their society, including understanding the role that religious values had played in forming that society’s legal codes and social ethics. The notion, therefore, that public education is part of a deep and ancient heritage around values neutrality is mistaken and in need of se- ous revision. The evidence suggests that public education’s initial conception was of being the complete educator, not only of young people’s minds but of their inner character as well.

Informed by the most up-to-date research from around the world, as well as examples of good practice, this handbook analyzes values education in the context of a range of school-based measures associated with student wellbeing. These include social, emotional, moral and spiritual growth – elements that seem to be present where intellectual advancement and academic achievement are being maximized. This text comes as ‘values education’ widens in scope from being concerned with morality, ethics, civics and citizenship to a broader definition synonymous with a holistic approach to education in general. This expanded purview is frequently described as pedagogy relating to ‘values’ and ‘wellbeing’. This contemporary understanding of values education, or values and wellbeing pedagogy, fits well with recent neuroscience research. This has shown that notions of cognition, or intellect, are far more intertwined with social and emotional growth than earlier educational paradigms have allowed for. In other words, the best laid plans about the technical aspects of pedagogy are bound to fail unless the growth of the whole person – social, emotional, moral, spiritual and intellectual, is the pedagogical target. Teachers and educationalists will find that this handbook provides evidence, culled from both research and practice, of the beneficial effects of such a ‘values and wellbeing’ pedagogy.

Aims to provide an easily accessible, practical yet scholarly source of information about the international concern for the nature, theory and practices of the ideas of values education and lifelong learning. Aspin from Monash University and Chapman from Australian Catholic University.

This book summarizes and updates findings from the Australian Values Education Program with a focus on the latest international research in the field, both theoretical and practice-based. Further, it provides a theoretical and practical basis for understanding the disenchantment with low-level accountability approaches to learning (e.g. NAPLAN in Australia). In turn, the book demonstrates the effectiveness of Values Education as a holistic pedagogy with the potential to enhance students’ learning effects in terms of their personal, social, emotional and academic development. It offers well-tested alternative pedagogical approaches, based on research insights largely originating from actual classroom-based practice.

This book is about values education in early years settings and discusses theory and concepts, as well as methodological and empirical perspectives. It explores issues such as the kinds of values that are communicated between educators and children and the kind of future citizens we foster in early childhood settings. It illustrates by way of cases involving many participants, including children, educators, and researchers, who have their roots in diverse contexts, and reside in different parts of the world, including Australia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia, and Sweden. The book carefully considers the contextualized character of the cases presented, yet argues that the questions, theories, and methodologies emphasized do inform the international debate in manifold ways. Communication of values in a broad and diverse sense is central in any pedagogy, especially for the youngest children in the educational system. Still, values education has been neglected as a research field, in education in general and particularly in the early years. This book addresses this lack of knowledge by scrutinizing various questions about values education in ECEC settings.

An investigation into how schools can influence the developing values of young people is given in this book. The authors first look, from the perspective of educationalists and policy makers, at values within contemporary education; in particular, moral, spiritual, democratic and environmental values together with arts and health education. Secondly, they focus on the values of pupils and schools, examining school aims and mission statements, the formal curriculum, school ethos and assessment of children's development.; Insights are provided with guidance on how values may be most effectively incorporated into the activities of the schools. This book is intended to be of use as a practical and informative guide to all those involved in primary and secondary education and those interested in values education generally.