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Values education in preschool
Eva Johansson
Introduction
What kinds of future citizens are brought up in todayâs early childhood settings? For children to be part of a community, such as a preschool,1 the focus cannot be only on the future; it must also incorporate being a citizen of today. Children and educators2 constitute a preschool community built on values, rules and ideals about being and becoming a âgoodâ citizen. Learning for citizenship is part of values education and refers to the values and rules expressed and communicated in preschool, both formally and informally (Thornberg, 2016). Both educators and children are active in this process in communicating and prioritising values, yet it is the educatorâs responsibility to support childrenâs reflections on values in preschool practice. Parents are significant persons in fostering the values of their children, and the interplay and trust among parents, educators and children are essential. The responsibility for this relationship relies heavily on the educator, who is responsible for pedagogical practice and the group of children involved. Conversely, parents have their own child closest to their hearts. This book does not particularly address the role of parents.3 We would, however, encourage readers to bear in mind the important relationship with parents as one of several prerequisites for values education.
The aim of this book is to inspire educators, Masters and PhD students, parents and researchers to critically reflect on values education in ECEC contexts and practices. The various studies presented in this book address the following questions in various ways:
- How is values education addressed and negotiated in ECEC practices?
- What kinds of values are prioritised, and what kinds of values are important for children and educators?
- What kinds of challenges do educators and children face in the multiple and complex work with values?
The findings from the various studies presented illuminate issues of significance for professional reflexive practice in general and values education in particular. The research projects are all close to praxis and are built on the voices of the participants (educators and children) and embrace the values of empowerment, democracy and respect. Characteristic of all the chapters are the frequent and narrow analyses of the interplay between educators and children, as well as between children, and how values are negotiated and prioritised in these interactions.
The ValuEd project
This book is inspired by the research project âValues Education in Nordic Preschools: Basis of Education for Tomorrowâ (or the ValuEd project; ref. number 53581). This action research project dealt with values education in five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The aim was to explore the institutionalised fostering of values in Nordic preschools at the theoretical, methodological and empirical levels in order to create knowledge and contribute to change (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005). We applied Habermasâ (1996) theoretical ideas about communicative actions, life-worlds and systems as a frame for the study, but other theories were also used to enlighten the studies. A multiplicity of methods was used to gather the research material: policy documents, individual interviews, group interviews, (video) observations, narratives and written diaries from the participants and researchers.
The ValuEd project in practice
Between 2013 and 2016, researchers and educators from across the five countries worked together on the project. A total of 24 preschools and approximately 491 educators and 1,940 children from the five countries were involved. Educators in the field and 25 Nordic researchers worked in close collaboration, sharing and constructing knowledge together. The educators were responsible for the planning, realisation and evaluation of the work on values work in their various practices. They chose the values they preferred to work with based on the needs, interests and status of their respective group of children. The researchers were responsible for the research part and for theoretical input. They contributed to the educatorsâ work with values by challenging questions and initiating discussions. The educators and researchers participated in reflection seminars, lectures, interviews and conversations where values were always on the agenda. Either educators or researchers could present ideas and questions in relation to values. This close collaboration was based on the value of respect â respect for each otherâs knowledge and expertise â and went beyond the dichotomous juxtaposing between the researchersâ theoretical and the educatorsâ practical expertise, as Puroila, Estola, Juutinen and Viljamaa formulate in Chapter 2.
The discussions in this book are founded on recent experiences from this research project and are also based on other Nordic studies. The chapters illuminate a multiplicity of values communicated between educators and children in Icelandic, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish preschools and the implications for practice that follow. It is important to remember that children are regarded as active participants in the process of values education; however, the focus of the ValuEd study was on educatorsâ communication of values. Nevertheless, several of the chapters in this book address both childrenâs and educatorsâ expressions for values.
Values in a world of change
The quality of early childhood education has generated considerable interest around the world, and there is general agreement that high-quality programmes are crucial for future education and work and for social and relational competences (Ringsmose & Kragh MĂŒller, 2017). As indicated earlier, values are, more than ever, actualised in the pluralistic societies of today, not only in the Nordic countries but also in societies the world over (Killen & Smetana, 2014; Lunn, Johansson, Walker, & Scholes, 2017; Thornberg, 2016). Preschools are important societal sites for the communication of values. Every day, a variety of values are more or less unconsciously communicated in pedagogical practices around the world (Emilson & Johansson, 2009; Johansson, 2011b; Lunn et al., 2017; Puroila et al., 2016; Tofteland, 2015; Zachrisen, 2013, 2016). However, little attention has been given to teaching practices relating to the learning of values, particularly in early years education (Johansson et al., 2015; Lunn et al., 2017). Although a values perspective is embedded in the core curricula and legislation regarding ECEC both internationally and in all Nordic countries, values education remains one of the most neglected areas in practice. While there is a strong focus on subject areas and academic learning, there is a tendency to overlook values (Bae, 2009; Biesta, 2009; Ăstrem, 2012). There is a need for greater understanding of the knowledge required by early yearsâ educators to engage in pedagogies that address values. This book will fill this knowledge gap by addressing the processes of values education in preschool as well as the important pedagogies and perspectives that can follow.
In spite of this lack of knowledge reported earlier, there has been growing international interest in the learning of values, particularly as the early years have been recognised as critical in childrenâs moral development (Lunn et al., 2017, p. VII; Thornberg, 2014). Researchers visualise how very young children are engaged in and communicate values relating to rights, care and belonging (HĂ€nnikĂ€inen, 2015; PĂĄlmadĂłttir & Johansson, 2015; Singer & de Haan, 2007). Globalisation highlights a plurality of encounters between values as well as between conflicting values (Johansson & Emilson, 2016). Accountability, efficiency and flexibility are values often used to influence pedagogical policy and practice in Western society today; at the same time, values relating to democracy and care are being challenged (Johansson et al., 2015; SigurĂ°ardĂłttir & Einarsdottir, 2016; Zachrisen, 2013). Several voices have recently been raised claiming that ECEC is becoming overly focused on academic learning and efficiency. This new focus on efficiency is seen as a threat to the caring culture in ECEC (Bae, 2009; Biesta, 2009; Ăstrem, 2012).
Children and educators in preschools increasingly represent diverse cultural and social backgrounds and value preferences. Educators are expected to address issues of values and value conflicts professionally in everyday encounters with colleagues, parents and children in ECEC settings. Early childhood settings around the world serve as societal platforms where values are communicated both consciously and unconsciously in everyday pedagogical practices (Emilson & Johansson, 2009; Johansson, 2011; Lunn et al., 2017). Educators are instrumental people from whom children learn values, but at the same time, they report that demands for multiple decisions and pedagogical priorities make working with conflicting values a burden (Puroila et al., 2016; Thornberg, 2009). From the ValuEd study, we learnt how a variety of values are communicated when educators describe how they work in practice. However, these values are seldom articulated and conceptualised. Instead, they are lived and communicated in preschool practice (Puroila et al., 2016). Educators find it difficult to define and identify values. Our study illuminates, however, that educators improve their analytical skills through various reflexive methods (Sigurdadottir & Einarsdottir, 2016). The challenge for educators is to develop a language of values and to disburse values education in preschool based on attentiveness to the values they actually communicate, taking into account childrenâs experiences of values, the value conflicts of everyday life and the values for children to develop (Johansson et al., 2016). This is one way of transforming implicit values education into more explicit and qualified values education (Thornberg, 2016).
Values â social constructions
A variety of values are addressed in the various chapters of the book, for example, care, democracy, justice, well-being, togetherness and justice. There are different ways of understanding and defining values, and there is an ongoing discussion in philosophy on whether to regard values as universal or contextual (Killen & Smetana, 2014). Values can be expressed on different levels: societal, institutional, interactional and personal (Johansson et al., 2015). In this book, we encounter values on the institutional, interactional and personal levels since the analyses are conducted in preschools and concern the concrete and personal ways of understanding and prioritising values. We see values as socially constructed and embedded in time, place and culture. Values are relational because they refer to our intersubjective life with others. Values are understood as beliefs regarding good and bad, right and wrong, positive and negative and the ways in which to live, (inter)act and relate to others. Values can be experienced and communicated in interactions between educators and children in preschool in terms of what is regarded as desirable or not (Emilson & Johansson, 2009; Johansson, 1999, 2011b; see also Einarsdóttir, Puroila, Johansson, Broström, & Emilson, 2015). Values can sometimes also serve as principles that guide human action and by which actions are judged to be good or desirable (Halstead & Taylor, 2000). Values are, however, often tacit, emotionally loaded and embedded in practice and are thereby difficult to identify and verbalise (Gilbrant, 2012; Johansson, 2007; Johansson & Thornberg, 2014; Johansson et al., 2015; Puroila et al., 2016; Tofteland & Johansson, 2017). Educators and children in preschool are active partners in the ongoing values education in terms of interpreting and reflecting on values. As such, certain values and norms may be prioritised and others neglected (Thornberg, 2014). Addressing value conflicts is a constant recurring issue in human life (Johansson & Emilson, 2016). In this book, for example, value conflicts are regarded as potentials for values education. This is instantiated in how children express and make sense of value controversies that occur in their play (see Chapter 8 by Pålmadóttir).
Value fields â clusters of related values
The ValuEd project has its origins in research conducted by Johansson (2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011a) and Emilson (2006, 2007, 2008) regarding moral values in Norwegian and Swedish preschools. The following value fields presented are, however, empirically based and have been identified in previous studies as well as in this Nordic study (Emilson & Johansson, 2009; Gilbrant, 2012; Johansson, 2011a; Johansson et al., 2014; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 2006). These value fields are interrelated and occasionally overlap; they can also be in conflict. By relating to both individual and collective aspects, these value fields refer to important dimensions in fostering future citizens in pluralistic societies. It is important to remember that descriptions of value fields can be done in various ways.
The value fields presented in Figure 1.1 should be seen as clusters of interrelated values.
The ethical value field concerns the well-being of others. The emphasis is on the situation and needs and moods and experiences of the other as well as the ways in which the other is taken care of in the community (Johansson et al., 2015). Values such as care, human dignity, recognition and respect for the other as a human being are important in this value field. Human dignity refers to the absence of harm to others, both physically and psychologically. Care can be about comforting and helping others. Rights can refer to certain individual freedoms; however, they are always conditional on the well-being of the other and/or the community. Values for safety refer to the feeling of being safe, emotionally and bodily. Safety values connect to a basic trust: whether and how other people can be trusted and whether everyday life is relatively predictable. Safety can refer to an existential dimension, experiencing safety as a human being, trusting that oneâs needs will be fulfilled. This value field is closely connected (subordinated) to the value field of ethics (Johansson et al., 2015). Self-enhancement as a value field is likewise intertwined with the value field of ethics. It refers to a sense of concern for (my)self as a person able to express oneself freely. Connected to this are values such as self-realisation, lust and playfulness. Self-enhancement can also be interrelated with the value field of democracy since it has to do with the individualâs possibility of expressing himself or herself and to be heard. This can be regarded as participation. In this context, we have emphasised the affordances in preschools for a child to express himself or herself and to do this on his or her own terms.
Figure 1.1 The value fields
The democratic value field concerns the dialectic relation and tensions between the individual and the community (Johansson et al., 2015). This value field describes conditions for community life and concerns values pertaining to rights and responsibilities for the community and the individual. It concerns the conditions and abilities required to take part in (or to resist) and influence a community. Various dimensions of belonging and kinships are connected to the value field of democracy. Influence and participation can be important values and are interconnected to a certain degree. Influence presupposes participation, but participation is not conditional on influence. One can take part in a community without being able to influence. Freedom and responsibility are values of significance in the democratic value field. Being part of a community demands certain responsibilities from each individual. At the same time, individuals are allowed a certain kind of freedom. In preschool, for example, there is a challenge for educators to strike a balance between the childâs and the communityâs wishes and needs. Democracy can be connected with...
