National Frameworkfor Values Educationin Australian Schools

© Commonwealth of Australia 2005

Context and overview

• National Framework – released and distributed to all schools in 2005

• Endorsed by all States and Territories Education Ministers

• Underpins a four-year national programme which includes values education forums, Good Practice Schools Projects, professional learning and curriculum resources, national activities and partnership projects

The National Framework

What’s in the National Framework?

• A context

• A vision

• Shared values for Australian schooling

• Guiding principles for effective values education

• Key elements and approaches that inform good practice

Context for Values Education

National Goals for Schoolingin Twenty-first Century (1999)

When they leave school students should:• have qualities of self-confidence, optimism, high

self-esteem, and a commitment to personal excellence as a basis for their potential life roles as family, community and workforce members (Goal 1.2);

• have the capacity to exercise judgement and responsibility in matters of morality, ethics and social justice, and the capacity to make sense of their world, to think about how things got to be the way they are, to make rational and informed decisions about their own lives and to accept responsibility for their own actions (Goal 1.3).

• 69 schools Australia wide engagedin action research projects

• Literature research

• Online survey

• Led to a Draft National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools

• Values Education Website: http://www.valueseducation.edu.au

Values Education Study (2003)

Vision

• articulating the school’s mission/ethos in consultation with the school community

• developing student responsibility, resilience, social skills

• incorporating values in policies and curriculum

• reviewing outcomes.

All schools provide values education in a planned and systematic way by:

What are values?

• … the principles and fundamental convictions which act as general guides to behaviour, the standards by which particular actions are judged as good or desirable.(J Halstead and J and M Taylor, 2000)

• the ideals that give significance to our lives, that are reflected through the priorities we choose, and that we act on consistently and repeatedly. (Brian Hill, 2004)(National Framework, p8)

What is values education?

Any explicit and/or implicit school-based activity which promotes student knowledge and understanding of values, and which develops the skills and dispositions of students so they can enact particular values as individuals and as members of the wider community.(National Framework, p8)

Nine Values for Australian Schooling

• Care and Compassion

• Doing Your Best

• Fair Go

• Freedom

• Honesty and Trustworthiness

• Integrity

• Respect

• Responsibility

• Understanding,Tolerance and Inclusion

Guiding principles foreffective values education

• Helps students understand and apply values

• Explicit goal of schooling

• Articulates the values of the school community

• Whole school approach

• Safe and supportive learning environment

• Trained and resourced teachers

• Curriculum which meets individual needs of students

• Regular review

Key elements and approachesthat inform good practice