Placing Values at the Centre of School Policy and Classroom Practice—A Case Study of Modbury School, South Australia

Abstract

This chapter tells the story of how one school took up the challenge to embed Values Education in all classroom programs. In particular it focuses on the vision and activities of the principal and the ways the teachers have embraced Values Education in their work. It outlines the introduction of Values Education in the school and the principal’s theorising underpinning this work. Today, the work of all teachers in the school is imbued with Values Education and this chapter presents and critiques examples of this work. Two sets of ideas are used to organise and interpret the policy and pedagogical work of the school: the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools, and the outcomes of Quality Teaching suggested by Lovat in Chapter 1. The former proposes that the key elements and approaches that inform good practice include: whole school planning; partnerships with school communities; a whole school approach to the integration of Values Education within all aspects of the school’s work; the provision of a safe and supportive learning environment; the provision of support for the development in students of positive skills and dispositions; and quality teaching procedures. The latter suggests that learning in a values-driven program will be characterised by intellectual depth, communicative competence, reflection, self management and self knowledge. A particular feature of Modbury School is the vision and drive of the principal. The chapter will examine this leader’s work and seek to identify the characteristics of leadership that are influencing the endeavours of the school. Finally, the chapter will discuss the implications of this work for: the school itself, and future directions that it might take; other schools that might pursue a similar approach to Values Education; and university schools of education that are charged with preparing teachers to take up Values Education in their future classrooms. Chapter 4 Placing Values at the Centre of School Policy and Classroom Practice—A Case Study of Modbury School, South Australia