Anna K. Döring, Emma Jones, Thomas P. Oeschger, Elena Makarova
{"title":"Giving voice to educators: Primary school teachers explain how they promote values to their pupils","authors":"Anna K. Döring, Emma Jones, Thomas P. Oeschger, Elena Makarova","doi":"10.1007/s10212-024-00885-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Values are the trans-situational goals guiding human attitudes and behavior (Schwartz, 1992). As early socialization agents, teachers have a responsibility to promote democratic values of citizenship to create an inclusive, fair, and sustainable society, necessary for individual and collective well-being (OECD, 2019). By facilitating social and cognitive development through social interactions, the school setting helps spark curiosity, leading to reflection and adaptation. Across the curriculum, teachers use strategies like imitation, modelling, priming, and discussion to help children make sense of the world (Makarova et al., 2024; Oeschger et al., 2022). Yet little empirical evidence exists to support how teachers achieve this. The present study gives voice to educators through the personal experiences of ten UK primary school teachers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, lasting between 50 and 90 min. Data was analyzed in two stages: First, a deductive structuring content analysis identified how values of self-transcendence versus self-enhancement and openness to change versus conservation, as defined in Schwartz’s (1992) model, were reflected in the interview data. Second, an inductive thematic analysis yielded the following themes: mechanisms of value transmission; implicit vs explicit instruction of values; values that are most difficult to teach; value transmission through taught lessons; the role of collective worship and cultural days; opportunities for value transmission in the wider school environment; and the role that a school culture and ethos play in the transmission of values. This study supports the view that values are promoted through a variety of methods and across all areas of the school environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":47800,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Psychology of Education","volume":"67 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","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/s10212-024-00885-8","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
Values are the trans-situational goals guiding human attitudes and behavior (Schwartz, 1992). As early socialization agents, teachers have a responsibility to promote democratic values of citizenship to create an inclusive, fair, and sustainable society, necessary for individual and collective well-being (OECD, 2019). By facilitating social and cognitive development through social interactions, the school setting helps spark curiosity, leading to reflection and adaptation. Across the curriculum, teachers use strategies like imitation, modelling, priming, and discussion to help children make sense of the world (Makarova et al., 2024; Oeschger et al., 2022). Yet little empirical evidence exists to support how teachers achieve this. The present study gives voice to educators through the personal experiences of ten UK primary school teachers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, lasting between 50 and 90 min. Data was analyzed in two stages: First, a deductive structuring content analysis identified how values of self-transcendence versus self-enhancement and openness to change versus conservation, as defined in Schwartz’s (1992) model, were reflected in the interview data. Second, an inductive thematic analysis yielded the following themes: mechanisms of value transmission; implicit vs explicit instruction of values; values that are most difficult to teach; value transmission through taught lessons; the role of collective worship and cultural days; opportunities for value transmission in the wider school environment; and the role that a school culture and ethos play in the transmission of values. This study supports the view that values are promoted through a variety of methods and across all areas of the school environment.
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.