Values Education in Nordic Preschools: A Commentary

Abstract

The six papers in this special issue focus on how values and values education are embedded in the everyday life at Nordic preschools. The studies in this special issue provide stimulating theoretical and methodological knowledge to inform further study of values education internationally. A key contribution of the papers is that there is identification of a need for a more professional language through which teachers can discuss how their values are expressed in teaching. This may enable teachers to become more explicit in how they work with values in preschool programs. Through professional discussions, preschool teachers can become more conscious and elaborative in their language as values educators. This is important because inevitably teachers are role models to children, no matter how aware they are of this role. This is demonstrated through the special issue papers in the importance that teachers place on developing caring, warm, and supportive relationships with children, as well as how they convey implicitly their values about democracy, rights, and gender in daily practice. A holistic approach to values education was also indicated as necessary because values education cannot be confined to explicit teaching of values and morality. Instead, values education needs to be viewed as lived relational phenomena in early childhood programs.