Theoretical Framework for Values

Development
Inclusion is most importantly seen as putting inclusive
values into action. It is a commitment to particular
values which accounts for a wish to overcome
exclusion and promote participation. Values are
fundamental guides and prompts to action. They spur
us forward, give us a sense of direction and define a
destination. We know that we are doing, or have done,
the right thing through understanding the relationship
between our actions and our values. For all actions
affecting others are underpinned by values. Every
such action becomes a moral argument whether or not
we are aware of it. It is a way of saying this is the
right thing to do.

Being clear about the relationship between values and
actions is the most practical step we can take in
education. We are guided to know what we should do
next and how to understand the actions of others.
The Index provides a model for the way educational
development in settings can arise from deeply held
values rather than on a series of programmers or
initiatives designed by others underpinned by values
that have been unexamined and which may be rejected
when they are. Each of its indicators and questions
can be linked back to the framework of values and so
reinforce values led approach to improvement.

A careful piecing together of a framework of values
has resulted in a list of headings concerned
with equality, rights, participation,
community, respect for diversity, sustainability, non-
violence, trust, compassion, honesty, courage, joy, lov
e, hope/optimism, and beauty. This has been a shared
process involving countless dialogues with people in
many countries. Since the Index was published a
sixteenth value heading, wisdom has been added
following engagement with a number of other values
frameworks. The word wisdom occurs within the
Church of England list of educational values though it
is given a non-theological meaning here to indicate
how action may require the careful weighing up of
competing possibilities.


In the text of the Index priority was given to some
values over others in shaping educational
development but we now see this as mistaken. The
significance of any particular heading can be tested by
imagining what education would be like without it.
What does education become
without courage, joy, love or beauty? And we have
also found that different people draw their motivation
from different sets of beliefs and different individuals
and groups use different values to start to transform
their setting.




A values framework can be considered as a web or
universe of interconnected meanings in four
dimensions. Over time the aspects of a value that
seem most important may shift. The illustration shows
values headings attached to points of a dodecahedron.

Going beyond headings to explore the extent of
shared understandings of equality, participation and
community, for example, can reveal considerable
differences in value positions. But education systems
also reflect entirely different sets of values that
involve treating children as commodities in an
education market. Educators may be expected to add
value to them as if they are canning sardines
Possible headings for excluding values lying behind
and always on the point of replacing inclusive values
are shown below. While several, such
as family or efficiency, might seem attractive as words
they may appear less so when set against the inclusive
value they replace. So a notion of family involving
concern for a single generation nuclear family appears
excluding when compared with the idea
of community in which family sentiments are
extended into ideas of wider solidarity involving
local, national and global citizenship
An excluding framework of values might be seen to
dominate many of our societies in the 21
st
century.
It may have become the default setting for our
values and so for determining our actions. We may
not notice the extent to which this has happened
and may have to work hard to reconnect our
actions to inclusive values.

We want everyone to be treated fairly and to feel part of a community.
We enjoy finding out about each other, what we have in common and
how we differ.
We learn from each other and share what we know.
We connect what we learn at home and at school.
We sort out problems by listening to each other and finding solutions
together.
We speak up when we see that something is wrong.
We celebrate the different plants and animals in the world.
We look after our environment, try to save energy and avoid waste.
We want to reduce the numbers of people who suffer hunger, disease
and poverty.