Whole-School Approaches to Values Education: Models of Practice in Australian Schools

In Australian schools, values education policies and programmes have existed in various forms in the past, but in recent years, the area has received renewed attention since the publication of the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools (DEST 2005) by the Australian government. The Framework was developed from the national Values Education Study (DEST 2003) and the Australian National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century (MCEETYA 1999). In this chapter, models of practice are explored where schools articulate and implement values education in whole-school approaches: through their school ethos, classroom teaching, and learning and co-curricular programmes, and through links to the wider community. In presenting the models of practice, the intersection between the schools’ stated and implicit values, and the synergies and tensions in their connections with current education policies are explored.