Key Resources
Envisage
Rationale
What is a whole-school approach?
Why a whole-school approach in values education?
The elements of a whole-school approach in values education
Rationale
Schools play a vital role in promoting the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians. Schools share this responsibility with students, parents, carers, families, the community. It is a collective responsibility.
As well as knowledge and skills, a school's legacy to young people should include national values of democracy, equity and justice, and personal values and attributes such as honesty, resilience and respect for others.
[We want] all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens. [We want them to] develop personal values and attributes such as honesty, resilience, empathy and respect for others; have the values … to establish and maintain healthy, satisfying lives; make rational and informed decisions about their own lives; accept responsibility for their own actions; act with moral and ethical integrity; [be] committed to national values of democracy, equity and justice; work for the common good; [be] responsible global and local citizens.
These words have been drawn from the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008). They affirm powerfully and unambiguously that values education is part of the core business of schooling. While values have always been part of the fabric of schools – both secular and faith-based – until recently there had not been a concerted attempt to systematise the way Australian schools approached values education.
The National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools (2005) was developed to provide a foundation for supporting schools in creating planned and systematic approaches to values education. Support for schools has also come from a range of values education projects funded by the Australian Government, which have now produced a much clearer and stronger understanding of how schools can foster values education to produce better schools and better outcomes for all young Australians.
What is a whole-school approach?
A whole-school approach is one that involves:
All members of the school community (students, staff, parents and carers, and other community members) and works across all areas of school life. It implicitly acknowledges that learning occurs not only through the formal curriculum, but also through students' daily experience of life in the school – and beyond.
Values for Australian Schooling Professional Learning Resources – Primary/Secondary, 2005
A 'whole school' therefore includes all the people, activities, curriculums, physical environments, resources, organisation systems and processes, financial arrangements and relationships that constitute 'the school'. The term 'whole school' implies a community and collaboration, a collective responsibility for what the school is, how it operates and what it achieves. That community would normally include students, teachers, school leaders and managers, ancillary and support staff, parents, carers and families, the school governance personnel and often members of the broader local community.
A 'whole-school approach to values education' means, in the first instance, a collaboration of all these members of the community in determining what values the school will foster and how it will go about the task of embedding those values in all that the school says and does. In the second instance, it means ensuring the values espoused by the school community are the values evident and practised in all areas of school life.
Why a whole-school approach in values education?
Partnerships with parents and carers and their local communities are fundamental to successful values education. Such has been the experience of values education project schools in the Values Education Study: Final Report (2003) and in Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the Values Education Good Practice Schools Project(2005–08). This work has shown how a whole-school approach to values education is the most effective way to establish a consistent values world for students and the school community. In this environment students have more chance to make sense of the words and deeds around them.
A whole school approach is also a more certain way to establish a true community of values that is negotiated through a common values language. It creates clearer expectations and provides the mechanism for a planned and systematic approach to values education within the school.
In a whole school approach, all participants – parents and carers, teachers and students – ensure that decisions are owned by the whole school. Research shows that schools that achieve high standards for their students strongly encourage parental involvement in discussing, monitoring and supporting student learning and in setting goals and policies for the school.
In a whole school approach, school policies and programs articulate the values contained in the school vision statement and ensure that these are applied consistently across the school. Both curriculum content and pedagogy reflect the values espoused in the school. Values are taught, discussed, modelled and practised in all key learning areas. The classroom environment will support student understanding and enacting of values. The involvement of students in school governance and in broad co-curriculum programs is essential for learning responsibility, practising social skills, and understanding and practising values.
One of the key findings of the Values Education Good Practice Schools Project – Stage 1 was that 'values education is sustained over time only through a whole school approach that engages all sectors of the school community'. The project's final report Implementing the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools (2006) observed that 'involving more people in the enterprise takes more time but ensures deeper commitment, stronger consistency and durable continuity beyond personnel changes'.
The elements of a whole-school approach in values education
In values education, the whole-school approach is visualised with the following elements:
- School vision defines the shared vision of the school community and explicitly states its values.
- The vision statement is the focus for all planning decisions.
- School policies and programs frame school practices and reflect the values outlined in the vision statement.
- Classroom teaching and learning covers curriculum and pedagogy, including the values taught, discussed, modelled and practised in all key learning areas and the classroom environment, and the consideration given to individual learning needs.
- School community encompasses partnerships, communication and consultation with parents and carers to ensure that the values of home and school are consistent and understood. The school community, in turn, is part of the wider local community.
- Students are at the heart of all the school's endeavours and their values learning is affected by all aspects of the school.
- The values in the background are the core shared values.
- The local, national and global contexts refer to the wider world in which the school resides.
A whole-school approach ensures:
- widespread and representative participation in school decision making
- consistent messages about values, both in principle and practice, across all areas of school life
- joint ownership of decisions by all stakeholders in the school community
- support for individual teachers whose classroom curriculum and pedagogy approaches are affirmed at the whole-school level
- sustainability of programs which belong to the whole school community.
View and download a poster and/or PowerPoint presentation of the whole school concept taken from Values for Australian Schooling – Professional Learning Resources – Primary/Secondary (2005).