Abstract:

Generally, teachers are expected to convey certain basic values to their pupils in addition to the task of mediating knowledge. These values differ between different countries and may be either implicitly taken for granted within the educational system or explicitly established in regulatory documents. In Sweden the curriculum for the upper secondary school states that “[e]ach and everyone working in the school should… encourage respect for the intrinsic value of each person and the environment we all share […] this is to be achieved by nurturing in the individual a sense of justice, generosity, tolerance and responsibility” (The Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) 2012). In light of this aspect of the teacher profession, we take it to be an important ingredient in the teacher education to prepare teacher students for the task of conveying such basic values. The present paper focuses on challenges in relation to this task.

As researchers and teachers in the Swedish teacher education we have had the opportunity to address the value-conveying task of the teacher profession in both research and education. In addressing this task, the typical evaluative profile of the teacher students has turned out to be an interesting challenge. According to previous studies, Swedes in general (Inglehart 2015) including Swedish teacher students (Authors 2016a), tend to embrace individualist values and reject more social values. This kind of individualist evaluative profile is potentially problematic in relation to the task of conveying basic values, since it typically comes with a tendency to view values as a private matter, something that the school should not interfere with (Authors 2016b).

In order to investigate the evaluative profiles of the teacher students and develop this aspect of the teacher education, we have worked according to a model with three distinct phases.
(1) A survey was constructed, using interactive tools such as Mentimeter and Lime Survey, deliberately choosing questions in relation to
(a) the task provided by SNAE of conveying a set of basic values, and
(b) relevant international studies (cf. Inglehart & Baker 2000).
(2) Students were invited to answer the survey, where they received direct feedback, providing the basis for problematizing and discussing their evaluations in relation to alternative views. In addition their answers provided information for us to map their evaluative profile.
(3) The evaluative profile was in turn put in relation to the basic values of their future profession and international research.

Hence the students were engaged in creating a substantial part of the study material of the course, used as a point of departure for critical analysis and discussion, making the students aware of their own evaluative profile and alternative points of view. We believe that such an increased awareness of one’s own evaluative profile is one prerequisite to develop a professional attitude to conveying both individual and social values in the teacher’s pedagogical practice and meet the requirements from SNAE and the challenges of a multicultural teaching environment. Our teaching method has also resulted in research which has been used in order to further develop the content of the course (Authors 2016a; 2016b). In this paper we present our method and explain how it can be used as a general model for working with values in the teacher education.

Keywords:

Teacher education, Basic values, Evaluative profiles, Interactive teaching, Conveying values.