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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aronson, E. (2000). Nobody left to hate. New York: W.H. Freeman.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Durkheim, E. (1973). Moral education. New York: Free Press.
Eccles, J. S., & Midgley, C. (1989). Stage/environment fit: Developmentally appropriate classrooms for early adolescents. In R. Ames & C. Ames (Eds.), Research on motivation in education (Vol. 3, pp. 139–1810). New York: Academic Press.
Finn, J. D. (1989). Withdrawing from school. Review of Educational Research, 59, 117–142.
Fiqueira-McDonough, J. (1986). School context, gender and delinquency. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 15, 79–98.
Friedman, I. A. (2006, July). School organizational values: a facet theory approach. Paper presented at the 26th International Congress of Applied Psychology. Athens, Greece.
Friedman, I. A. (in press). School organizational values and strategy: soundness, prestige, and compliance. In D. Elizur & E. Yaniv (Eds.), Facet theory: research and applications. Bar Ilan University Press (Hebrew).
Friedman, I. A., & Almog-Bareket, G. (2006). School organizational values (a measuring scale). Jerusalem: The Henrietta Szold Institute (Hebrew).
Grolnick, W. S., Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1997). Internalization within the family. In J. E. Grusec & L. Kuczynski (Eds.). Parenting and children's internalization of values: A handbook of contemporary theory (pp. 135–161). New York: Wiley
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hofstede, G., & Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Homer, M., & Kahle, l. (1988). A structural equation test of the value-attitudes- behavior hierarchy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 638–646.
Knafo, A., & Schwartz, S. (2003). Parental and Adolescents' accuracy in perceiving parental values. Child Development, 74(2), 595–611.
Kohn, A. (1996). Beyond discipline: From compliance to community. Virginia: ASCD-Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Kristiansen, M. Y., & Zanna, P. (1994). The rethorical use of values to justify social and inter-group attitudes. Journal of Social Issues, 50, 47–65.
Orwell, G. (1945). Animal farm. London: Secker & Warburg.
Rohan, M. J., & Zanna, M. P. (1996). Value transmission in families. In C. Seligman et al. (Eds.), The psychology of values: The Ontario Symposium (Vol. 8). New Jersey: Erlbaum.
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.
Sagiv, L., & Schwartz, S. (1995). Value priorities and readiness of out-of group social contact. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 437–448.
Schwartz, S. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical Advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1–65.
Schwartz, S. (1996). Value priorities and Behavior: Applying a theory of integrated Value systems. In C. Seligman et al. (Eds.), The psychology of values: The Ontario Symposium (Vol. 8). New Jersey: Erlbaum.
Schwartz, S., & Bilsky, W. (1987). Toward a psychological structure of human values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 550–562.
Schwartz, S., & Bilsky, W. (1990). Toward a theory of the universal content and structure of human values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 78–891.
Schwartz, S., & Sagiv, L. (1995). Identifying culture-specifics in the content and structure of values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 96–116.
Seligman, C., & Katz, A. (1996). The dynamics of value systems. In C. Seligman et al. (Eds.), The psychology of values: The Ontario Symposium (Vol. 8). New Jersey: Erlbaum.
Sidorkin, A. M. (2002). Learning Relations. Impure Education, Deschooled Schools, & Dialogue with Evil. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Tal, C. (in Press). Training teachers to enhance social skill as means of reducing violence in the classroom.Dapei Iozma (Hebrew).
Tal, C., & Yinon, Y. (1998). The relationship between the personal value-attitude- behavior system and the degree of religiosity among Israeli teachers. Yiunim BeHinuch (New Series), 3, 25–59 (Hebrew).
Tal, C., & Yinon, Y. (2002a). Values, attitudes and behaviors as indicators profiling teachers who voted for Labor, Likud, NRP or Meretz in the 1992 elections. Medina veHevra (State & Society), 2, 401–419 (Hebrew).
Tal, C., & Yinon, Y. (2002b). Teachers' conservatism, openness to change, transcendence and self-enhancement in daily life and in school situations. Social Psychology of Education, 5, 271–293.
Turiel, E. (2002). The culture of morality: Social development, context and conflict. Cmbridge: Cambridge University Press.
Turiel, E., & Wainryb, C. (2000). Social life in cultures: Judgments, conflicts and subversion. Child Development, 71(1), 250–257.
Williams, M., Jr. (1979). Change and stability in values and value systems: A sociological perspective. In M. Rokeach (Ed.), The nature of human values. Free Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tal, C., Yinon, Y. (2009). Teachers' Values in the Classroom. In: Saha, L.J., Dworkin, A.G. (eds) International Handbook of Research on Teachers and Teaching. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 21. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73317-3_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73317-3_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-73316-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-73317-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)