Implement

Implementing a whole-school approach to values education to create a values-centred school culture is a collaborative venture. The role of the school leadership is critical but it is only through the collaboration with the school community that the venture can succeed. While the implementation stages, priorities and processes will vary for each school context, the experiences of the VEGPSP strongly suggest that there are some approaches and practices that will maximise effective outcomes. See, for example, the story of the SA Alliance of Schools cluster, VEGPSP – Stage 1. See also VEGPSP Report executive summary.

In the following commentary on implementing a values-centred approach within the whole school culture, we have conceptualised the nature of school culture using a 'culture map', which has three levels. Each level has 'markers' or 'facts' that express the characteristics of the level. In real school life the levels operate as an integrated whole but this artificial separation helps to clarify the construction of the culture and the interrelationships. The levels are:

Level 1: School heart – the culture's ideo-facts consist of the values, ideas and philosophies of the culture that guide the school's purpose and ways of being.

Level 2: School structure – the culture's archi-facts are the built structures, frameworks, order and organisation through which the school's activities take place.

Level 3: School life – the culture's socio-facts are the elements of the lived life of the school as experienced by the members of its community.

View the culture map concept.

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