Frow Steeman

Aims of the educational program are:

• To help individuals think about and reflect on different values and the practical implications of expressing them in relation to themselves, others, the community, and the world at large;

• To deepen understanding, motivation, and responsibility with regard to making personal and social choices;

• To inspire individuals to choose their own personal, social, moral, and spiritual values and be aware of practical methods for developing and deepening them; and

• To encourage educators and caregivers to look at education as providing students with a philosophy of living, thereby facilitating their overall growth, development, and choices so that they may integrate themselves into the community with respect, confidence, and purpose.

The Living Values Education Approach

The vision, core principles and practices of Living Values Education

Vision Statement

Living Values Education (LVE) is a way of conceptualising education that promotes the development of values-based learning communities and places the search for meaning and purpose at the heart of education. LVE emphasises the worth and integrity of each person involved in the provision of education, in the home, school and community. In fostering quality education, LVE supports the overall development of the individual and a culture of positive values in each society and throughout the world, believing that education is a purposeful activity designed to help humanity flourish.

Core Principles

Living Values Education is based on the following core principles:

On the learning and teaching environment

1. When positive values and the search for meaning and purpose are placed at the heart of learning and teaching, education itself is valued.
   
2. Learning is especially enhanced when occurring within a values-based learning community, where values are imparted through quality teaching, and learners discern the consequences, for themselves, others and the world at large, of actions that are and are not based on values .
   
3. In making a values-based learning environment possible, educators not only require appropriate quality teacher education and ongoing professional development, they also need to be valued, nurtured and cared for within the learning community.
   
4. Within the values-based learning community, positive relationships develop out of the care that all involved have for each other.
   
   On the teaching of values
5. The development of a values-based learning environment is an integral part of values education, not an optional extra.
   
6. Values education is not only a subject on the curriculum. Primarily it is pedagogy; an educational philosophy and practice that inspires and develops positive values in the classroom. Values-based teaching and guided reflection support the process of learning as a meaning-making process, contributing to the development of critical thinking, imagination, understanding, self-awareness, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills and consideration of others.
   
7. Effective values educators are aware of their own thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviour and sensitive to the impact these have on others.
   
8. A first step in values education is for teachers to develop a clear and accurate perception of their own attitudes, behaviour and emotional literacy as an aid to living their own values. They may then help themselves and encourage others to draw on the best of their own personal, cultural and social qualities, heritage and traditions.
   
   On the nature of persons within the world and the discourse of education
9. Central to the Living Values Education concept of education is a view of persons as thinking, feeling, valuing whole human beings, culturally diverse and yet belonging to one world family. Education must therefore concern itself with the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being of the individual.
   
10. The discourse of education, of thinking, feeling and valuing, is both analytic and poetic. Establishing a dialogue about values within the context of a values-based learning community facilitates an interpersonal, cross-cultural exchange on the importance and means of imparting values in education.

Activities

In pursuing its mission and implementing its core principles, the Association for Living Values Education International and its Associates and Focal Points provide:

1. Professional development courses, seminars and workshops for teachers and others involved in the provision of education.
   
2. Classroom teaching material and other educational resources , in particular an award-winning series of five resource books containing practical values activities and a range of methods for use by educators, facilitators, parents and caregivers to help children and young adults to explore and develop twelve widely-shared human values ( Living Values Activities for Children Ages 3-7, Living Values Activities for Children Ages 8-14, Living Values Activities for Young Adults, Living Values Parent Groups: A Facilitator Guide and LVEP Educator Training Guide ). There are also resource books for children in difficult circumstances, youth in need of drug rehabilitation and children affected by war. The approach and lesson content are experiential, participatory and flexible, allowing – and encouraging – the materials to be adapted and supplemented according to varying cultural, social and other circumstances. The approach and materials may also be used systematically in alignment with the above principles as the Living Values Education Programme.
   
3. Consultation to government bodies, organisations, schools, teachers and parents on the creation of values-based learning environments and the teaching of values.
   
4. An extensive, multi-lingual website ( www.livingvalues.net ) with materials available for downloading free of charge.

Extent of Use

The Living Values Education Approach and materials are currently being used and producing positive results in more than 80 countries at about 8,000 educational settings. While most such settings are schools, others are day-care centres, youth clubs, parent associations, centres for street children, health centres and refugee camps. At least some LVE materials are available in about 30 languages. The approach is non-prescriptive and allows materials and strategies to be introduced according to the circumstances and interests of the users and the needs of students.

Structure

The implementation of Living Values Education is facilitated by the Association for Living Values Education International (“ALIVE”), a non-profit-making association of organisations around the world concerned with values education.

Drawing on a strong volunteer base, the advancement and implementation of Living Values Education is supported by UNESCO and a host of other organisations, agencies, governmental bodies, foundations, community groups and individuals. It is part of the global movement for a culture of peace in the framework of the United Nations International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World . ALIVE groups together national bodies promoting Living Values Education and is an independent organisation that does not have any particular or exclusive religious, political or national affiliation or interest.