4. Values – what is right and what is wrong
Also - what is destructive and constructive in
humanity throughout time
Love
Cooperation
Survival
Competition
5. 1. Defined by our culture and
society. We discover our values as
we discover difference.
6. The Coliseum Rome 1st Century AD
People and animals fighting
to the death.
We think this is wrong!
The Romans didn’t!
It’s easy to judge. It’s easy to
be simplistic.
7. 2. The next generation!
Throughout time - concern about
what values are imparted by
educators
8. Trial and Death of Socrates
5th Century BC Athens
Socratic method
Philos + Sophos =
philosophy
Charged with
disrespecting the gods
and corrupting the
young.
9. 3. Unique challenge of defining and
transmitting values in the
‘information age’
10.
11. Unique challenges today
Negative
Negative View
• Corruption in our society
• Lack of parental authority
• Individualistic consumerdriven society
Positive
Positive View
A chance to enable young people to
tackle global problems in new
ways
A chance to enable young people to
think around a moral problems
A chance for values to be
democratized but not necessarily
individualistic
13. Engaged Cultural Learning 1.
Culture
• Practices & beliefs in a place
and time
• Stories, buildings, films, art,
writing, plays, media,
oratory, songs, statues,
paintings, religious objects,
tombs etc.
Cultural Learning
• Understanding the ‘how’
and the ‘why’ of our
practices and beliefs
• Understanding the links
between our cultural
production and our
practices and beliefs
• Social, historical, economic
structures that shape us
• Influences, reasons, how
things change.
23. How is this new?
Transmission Model
• Moral Education
– Do’s & don’ts
– Rights and wrongs
– Stories and examples to
highlight the point
– Governed by popular view of
the society
Experiential Model
• Engaged Cultural Learning
– Awareness of societal and
economic imperatives of a
particular time & place
– Cause & effect
– Dynamic view of values
– Ability to assimilate diversity
in value system
24. Our Values
Questioning
Open-minded but critical
Self-reflective
Empathetic
Collaborative
Deeper understanding of difference
Positive self image
Curious
Creative, innovating
Good afternoon everybody. I would like to start by saying how honoured I am to be here among so many illustrious speakers and at such an important event and would like to thank the organisers for inviting me. It’s also an honour to be here, because right now, today, I can’t think of more exciting time and place to be working in and on education. MrBalia talked yesterday about educators being ‘in the frontline in the battlefield’ – which is so true in so many ways. Just about me – I’ve been teacher myself, I’ve taught in class KG, 2, 4 and 5.I’ve worked on education improvement projects in Afghanistan, Africa, Central Asia and of course here in India. I live in Delhi and I have started and run an organisation called Flow India. My organisation Flow India has been working in and out of schools in Delhi since 2010 with a passion to link the rich culture of museums, cultural sites, and other out of school real-life experiences to the currriculum. And in that work we have met, along the way, so many heros and, I have to say, mostly heroines, who are guiding the next generation of young people so admirably and in the face of constant challenge.
I’m grateful to this conference for another reason, which is that it has made me really think! Values education is a hard topic! I usually describe our programme at Flow in terms of the academic benefits to children. But when I thought about it, I realise that my own passion for the work we do in Flow India totally encompasses my own values as an educator. And that values are the heart of everything really. So then I really thought! And, given that I have only a few minutes to speak, I realised I should try to just say one thing that would encapsulate what I feel about values. Which is this. I will now spend the rest of the talk trying to explain and illustrate by what I mean by this statement.
In a world where we stick to what we know, we may not be aware of our sense of morality. It may seem natural. This is linked to the next point.
Not just an ‘information age’, but for kids in India – technological advance, environmental decline, complexity, insecurity, personal branding, ‘democracy’ etc. an ‘informaiton overload age’?
One in every 12 minutes on the internetFundamental changes in how learning works. MOOCs etc. Access to peers across the globe
Across the globe schools are moving from a banking model in education to transformative 21t Century learning. In this the process of learning is itself becoming democratized. Teachers and schools are moving from being the ‘sage on the stage’ to the ‘guide at the side’. Children and young people today are able to access a much broader range of views, and look less to the authority of the school or parents to lead on values and more to their peers, internationally, the media and through the internet. Rather than seeing this as a negative, we should embrace this change as a positive, and equip children to tackle their engagement with new ideas constructively.
