Teachers' Values in the Classroom

Abstract

Schools play a very central role in the children's development almost all over the world. They are an important part of their lives although they have never been asked whether they were willing to go to school. As Sidorkin (2002, p. 45) puts it: ``Being a child became equivalent to being a student, and experience of childhood and adolescence became confluent with experience of schooling.'' Schools are thus active participants in childrearing all over the world. Their main ``business'' being to educate children and adolescents. The question is what is ``good education''? Good education might be interpreted by some as an effort to turn the children into perfect copies of ourselves (``the old generation'') and as obedient followers of existing traditions and practices. Other people would perceive the attempt to assist the children find their own, most suitable way in the world as ``good education.'' Some would aspire to have the children know how to use the power of their status to maintain their dominance on other, less fortunate people. As opposed to that, others would argue that good education means to help the children become caring adult persons, who take an interest in turning tomorrow's world into a more fair place for more and more people. Determining what is good education, is thus a question of values. This chapter, therefore, takes an interest in the meaning of values in schools and in the process of their transmission (as viewed by some) or construction (as viewed by others). The chapter will also discuss the implications of our understanding of values for school and classroom practices.