ABSTRACT
The issue of values in education is probably as old as education itself. In fact, educational theories have always emphasised, more or less openly and more or less intentionally, the idea that education is not only about making people more knowledgeable, in a strictly ‘intellectual’ sense (whatever this may be!), but also about making people more ready for citizenship, in a broad sense. However, the meanings of this are clearly divergent and sometimes even conflicting, depending on perspective. For some, education should be concerned with transmitting the dominant values that constitute the core of civilisation, thus aiming to make people ‘good’ (e.g., Ryan 1989, 1993, Lickona 1991, 1993); for others, the issue of values is too controversial for the school to interfere in, and they stress the importance of neutrality (e.g., Raths, Harmin and Simon 1978); others still argue that it is more important to promote students’ competence to make autonomous and principled personal choices, by developing the flexibility, reciprocity and complexity of their self-organisation processes (e.g., Piaget 1977, Beane 1990, Sprinthall 1991). These different perspectives have relevant implications in educational praxis, with attention being called to various practices such as exhortation and example, interaction and self-expression, and action and critical reflection.
