Axiology

and Education

The question of values is of primary concern in education whether in the classroom, in the school

or in respect of the role of education in society. The teacher needs to be familiar with the value-

basis of the education he or she imparts to the child.

Values refer to those objects which we cherish, appreciate, want, desire or need. From the

psychological perspective, values may be defined as the objects of our desire or interest. Even so,

this is an incomplete definition because there are cases where a person may desire an object which

may turn out to be something that has no lasting value or something that ought not to be desired

by the individual. For example, children may desire to play the whole day if they are left to

themselves. However, their teacher might set them to work upon consideration that playing the

whole day is not valuable enough. This clearly shows that it is not sufficient for a person to express

a desire for something; the object desired has to be worth desiring or to be desirable before we can

say it is valuable. Therefore, in curriculum development, what the child wants to do out of

spontaneous interest has to be taken along with what he or she needs to do either for survival or

for its future development.

Note that whenever we are talking about aims and objectives in education, we are essentially

talking about the theory of values.

TYPES OF OBJECTIVES

Basically, there are two types of objectives in education. These are personal/individual and

public/social objectives.

Individual and personal objectives: These are the values that benefit the individual to the

exclusion of others. They only delight the individual. Intellectual and aesthetic values belong to

this category. For example, it is the individual who enjoys reading a book and appreciates a work

of art. The enjoyment is personal. Although one may read a perceived nice story or poem to others

or show them how to appreciate a work of art, he or she cannot enjoy it for them. Instead, they

have to enjoy it for themselves. So, these values are personal and subjective.

Public and social objectives: These are values which extend from the individual to others and to

the society at large. For example, the aim of education may be said to be the development of the

knowledge and the skills of the individual for his or her economic and social well-being.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the individual also uses his or her knowledge and skills to

contribute to the welfare of his or her family, community and society at the same time. Thus the

values here have both personal and social significance.

More clearly, social and public values are also moral values these can hardly be private because it

is social relationships that give rise to them in the first instance. The values of good citizenship are

public values and primarily social, and so also are political values. Nevertheless, the individual

also has a great stake in them since he or she cannot be happy it they are wrong values.

It is clear that whether in the maintenance of discipline in the classroom, in the distribution of

educational facilities in society, or in the control of schools in the educational system, most of the

questions of values arising in education can be reduced to the question of the claims of the
individual versus those of the society. For example, the teacher restricts the freedom of action of

the individual pupils in his or her classroom so that the whole group can benefit or gain from his

or her teaching. In the same way, those who argue that the state should have a monopoly of opening

and operating schools are ultimately saying that it is the state that can adequately care for the

interest of the society. On the other hand, those who support private and voluntary agency

participation usually base their arguments on the rights and freedom of the individual parents to

determine what education their children should have.

As a teacher of English, ask yourself whenever you are teaching: Am I teaching English so that

(1) children can pass ECZ examinations? (2) they can know the grammar and syntax of the

language and use it for communication? (3) I may earn a living

3. Ethics

Ethics is a branch of philosophy which is concerned with human conduct and character. It studies

the nature of right and wrong and the distinction between good and evil. It answers the question,

“What do I do?” Ethics explores the nature of justice and of one’s obligations to oneself, to others

and to society. It asks such questions as, “What makes right actions right and wrong actions

wrong?” “What is good and what is bad?” Ethics is very important because it is the only means of

deciding which course of action to take without which our actions would be random and aimless.

APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF ETHICS

There are many ethical theories or approaches to the study of

relativism: According to this theory, what is ethical depends on the individual, group, culture,

tradition and background. Simply put, there is no such thing as absolutely right or wrong because

the rightness or wrongness of an action depends on where and when that action is performed.

Ethical relativists point out that what is right in one society may be wrong in another and vice

versa.

1. Utilitarianism: This is an ethical theory with the

position that the moral worth of an action is

determined completely by its usefulness in

maximizing utility and minimizing negative utility.

This theory is also referred to as consequentialist

ethics because it posits that the moral worth of an

action is determined by its consequences.

Utilitarianists suggest that one acts to achieve the

greatest good for the greatest number of people.

They also add that public good must take precedence

over private good.

2. Deontological theories: Deontology comes from the

Greek work ‘deon’ which means ‘duty’ or

‘obligation’. Deontologists talk about moral

obligations. Unlike utilitarianists, deontologists are

of the view that the moral worth of an action is in the

action itself regardless of its consequences. They

judge the moral worth of an action based on the

action’s adherence to a rule or rules. For example,

Immanuel Kant argues, “Do what is right though the

world should perish.”