{"title":"The values of schools: an analysis of vision statements","authors":"Ella Daniel, Sharon Arieli, Liat Akerman","doi":"10.1007/s10212-024-00886-7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>School vision statements articulate an aspired future state for the school, highlighting its ideals, purpose, and unique aspects to direct behavior and promote motivation and commitment among stakeholders. This paper investigates vision statements of schools as artifacts expressing the values emphasized by schools, drawing on organizational literature that shows the role of central organizational artifacts in conveying the values important to the organization. Using a comprehensive sample of elementary schools across all districts in Israel (<i>N</i> = 99), we built on Schwartz’s values theory to identify values and analyze expressed values. We employed a mixed methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze these values. First, we analyzed the content of vision statements to investigate how values were manifested. Then, we investigated the values hierarchy reflected in the vision statements, and compared sectors to identify the impact of the broader social context. Our analysis revealed variation in values expression: as expected, self-direction and benevolence emerged as the most prevalent values in school vision statements; power and hedonism were less salient. Comparison of vision statements from public and public-religious schools, as well as across schools with varying socioeconomic status (SES), revealed differences in universalism values. Public schools and those with higher SES placed greater importance on universalism values compared to public-religious schools. Additionally, tradition values were less prominent in public schools but were the second most significant values in public-religious schools. We discuss the results within the framework of values theory and educational policy.</p>","PeriodicalId":47800,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Psychology of Education","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Psychology of Education","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00886-7","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
School vision statements articulate an aspired future state for the school, highlighting its ideals, purpose, and unique aspects to direct behavior and promote motivation and commitment among stakeholders. This paper investigates vision statements of schools as artifacts expressing the values emphasized by schools, drawing on organizational literature that shows the role of central organizational artifacts in conveying the values important to the organization. Using a comprehensive sample of elementary schools across all districts in Israel (N = 99), we built on Schwartz’s values theory to identify values and analyze expressed values. We employed a mixed methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze these values. First, we analyzed the content of vision statements to investigate how values were manifested. Then, we investigated the values hierarchy reflected in the vision statements, and compared sectors to identify the impact of the broader social context. Our analysis revealed variation in values expression: as expected, self-direction and benevolence emerged as the most prevalent values in school vision statements; power and hedonism were less salient. Comparison of vision statements from public and public-religious schools, as well as across schools with varying socioeconomic status (SES), revealed differences in universalism values. Public schools and those with higher SES placed greater importance on universalism values compared to public-religious schools. Additionally, tradition values were less prominent in public schools but were the second most significant values in public-religious schools. We discuss the results within the framework of values theory and educational policy.
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Psychology of Education (EJPE) is a quarterly journal oriented toward publishing high-quality papers that address the relevant psychological aspects of educational processes embedded in different institutional, social, and cultural contexts, and which focus on diversity in terms of the participants, their educational trajectories and their socio-cultural contexts. Authors are strongly encouraged to employ a variety of theoretical and methodological tools developed in the psychology of education in order to gain new insights by integrating different perspectives. Instead of reinforcing the divisions and distances between different communities stemming from their theoretical and methodological backgrounds, we would like to invite authors to engage with diverse theoretical and methodological tools in a meaningful way and to search for the new knowledge that can emerge from a combination of these tools. EJPE is open to all papers reflecting findings from original psychological studies on educational processes, as well as to exceptional theoretical and review papers that integrate current knowledge and chart new avenues for future research. Following the assumption that engaging with diversities creates great opportunities for new knowledge, the editorial team wishes to encourage, in particular, authors from less represented countries and regions, as well as young researchers, to submit their work and to keep going through the review process, which can be challenging, but which also presents opportunities for learning and inspiration.