The Lack of Professional Knowledge in Values Education

Source: Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 24, Issue 7, October 2008, P. 1791-1798

The goal of this research is to examine teachers’ perceptions of their practice of values education, and to explore their degree of professionalism in this matter. Qualitative interviews with 13 teachers have been conducted and analyzed by a comparative analysis.

According to their view, values education is (a) most often reactive and unplanned,
(b) embedded in everyday school life with a focus on students’ everyday behavior in school,
and (c) partly or mostly unconsciously performed. Furthermore, professional knowledge appears to be missing in the domain of values education among these teachers.