Assignment

Role of values in Education

Submitted by : Muhammad Waqas

Reg No. : 2018-ag-5472

Submitted to : Sir Zaigham

Section : A

Course code : Edu-505

Course title : Philosophy of Education

Topic : Role of values in Education

Role of values in Education

Values Definition – What is Values?

Values defined in Organizational Behavior as the collective conceptions of what is

considered good, desirable, and proper or bad, undesirable, and improper in a culture.

Some common business values are fairness, innovations and community involvement.

According to M. Haralambos, “A value is a belief that something is good and desirable”.

According to R.K. Mukherjee, “Values are socially approved desires and goals that are
internalized through the process of conditioning, learning or socialization and that become
subjective preferences, standards, and aspirations”.

According to Zaleznik and David, “Values are the ideas in the mind of men compared to
norms in that they specify how people should behave. Values also attach degrees of goodness to
activities and relationships”

According to I. J. Lehner and N.J. Kube, “Values are an integral part of the personal
philosophy of life by which we generally mean the system of values by which we live. The
philosophy of life includes our aims, ideals, and manner of thinking and the principles by which
we guide our behavior”

According to T. W. Hippie, “Values are conscious or unconscious motivators and

justifiers of the actions and judgment”

A value is a shared idea about how something is ranked in terms of desirability, worth or
goodness. Sometimes, it has been interpreted to mean “such standards by means of which the
ends of action are selected”.

Sometimes, it has been interpreted to mean “such standards by means of which the ends
of action are selected”.
 Thus, values are collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper
or bad, undesirable, and improper in a culture.

Familiar examples of values are wealth, loyalty, independence, equality, justice,

fraternity and friendliness.

Familiar examples of values are wealth, loyalty, independence, equality, justice,

fraternity and friendliness. These are generalized ends consciously pursued by or held up to
individuals as being worthwhile in them.

It is not easy to clarify the fundamental values of a given society because of their sheer
breadth.

Characteristics of Value

Values are different for each person.

These can be defined as ideas or beliefs that a person holds desirable or undesirable.

The variability in that statement is, first, what a person could value, and second, the
degree to which they value it.

The characteristics of values are:

❖ These are extremely practical, and valuation requires not just techniques but also an
understanding of the strategic context.
❖ These can provide standards of competence and morality.
❖ These can go beyond specific situations or persons.
❖ Personal values can be influenced by culture, tradition, and a combination of internal and
external factors.
❖ These are relatively permanent.
❖ These are more central to the core of a person.
Types of Values

There are two types of values;

1. Terminal Values.
2. Instrumental Values.

Importance of Values

Values are the enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence
is personally or socially preferable.

These are more difficult to change or alter.

As ethical conduct receives more visibility in the workplace, the importance of values is
increased as a topic of discussion in management.

Values are general principles to regulate our day-to-day behavior. They not only give
direction to our behavior but are also ideals and objectives in themselves.

They are the expression of the ultimate ends, goals or purposes of social action.

He also stressed that values enable individuals to feel that they are part of something
bigger than themselves.

Our values are the basis of our judgments about what is desirable, beautiful, proper, correct,
important, worthwhile and good as well as what is undesirable, ugly, incorrect, improper and
bad.

Pioneer sociologist Durkheim emphasized the importance of values (though he used the
term ‘morals’) in controlling disruptive individual passions.

E. Shils also makes the same point and calls ‘the central value system,’ (the main values
of society) are seen as essential in creating conformity and order..

As we grow and change as individuals, we will begin to value different aspects of life.
Sources of Values

Sources of value are a comprehensive guide to financial decision-making suitable for beginners
as well as experienced practitioners.

It treats financial decision-making as both an art and a science and proposes a comprehensive
approach through which companies can maximize their value.

Generally, no values tend to be relatively stable and enduring.

A significant portion of the values we hold is established in our early years from parents,
teachers, friends, and others. There are so many sources from which we can acquire different
values.

Sources of values are;

Family: Family is a great source of values. A child leams his first value from his family.

Friends & peers: Friends and peers play a vital role in achieving values.

Community or society: As a part of society, a person leams values from society or different
groups of society.

School: As a learner, school and teachers also play a very important role in introducing values.

Media: Media such as – Print media, Electronic media also play the role of increasing values in
the mind of people.

Relatives: Relative also helps to create values in the minds of people.

Organization: Different organizations and institutions also play a vital role in creating value

Social values

Social values are defined as standards, which individuals and social groups employ to
define personal goals and essentially shape the nature and form of social order in a collective i.e.,
what is acceptable and not acceptable, what ought or not to be, what is desirable or non-desirable
(Kluckhohn, 1951; Tsirogianni & Gaskell, 2011).
Importance of Social values

The consequences of avoiding teaching values in schools are serious problems for
students. Students tend to get in conflict when it is time to make choices that it can be regarding
their future. The future of students can be compromised by the lack of social values in them.
Many incidents can be avoided by educating students social values in school. All of the sources
used for this paper are a great justification of why teaching social values in school are
indispensable for the future of the students.

Specially, we see this in the younger generation; for instance, no showing respect for
other people, lack of tolerance for people who think different than them or simply not having a
self-discipline to make the right choices are enforcing them to believe that what they are doing is
right. We are witnesses of how almost every day the lack of social values is affecting the
development of the students, our children, to succeed in life. Respect, tolerance, equality, and
honesty are some of the social values that build a strong and secure personality of any individual.

Even though, amount of signs proves that these dangerous causes are the effects of not
displaying social values, we still have people that are against to promote social values in schools.
If society does not want to keep seeing these deceitful results because the lack of social values,
we need to consider implementing social values in school.

On the contrary of these individuals, Slater (2008) declares that “there is always a desire
to separate the teaching of values from the teaching of reading, writing, and mathematics, the so-
called value neutral subjects. But we have learned, and every parent who has done homework
with his child knows, that like it or not, we teach values in the course of teaching these subjects.”
Believe or not, when parents send their children to school, they think that their kids are only
going to learn the traditional school subjects such as mathematics or science, but the truth is that
in every aspect of school; students are going to learn in a way social values. Parents need to
reflection and understand about this situation. They have to comprehend that the goal of teaching
values in schools is to protect our children for future situations that can have an emotional impact
their life.
Moral Values

Moral Values are the worthy principles that one follows to distinguish the right from the
wrong. These virtues are considered worthy in building up the character of an individual. Moral
Value refers to the good virtues such as honesty, integrity, truthfulness, helpfulness, love,
respectfulness, hard-work, etc.

Importance of Moral Values

Students are the future of Pakistan. The future of our country depends upon the moral
values convey to them during their student life. They will become doctors, politicians, business-
person, engineers, scientists, etc., and hold important positions. Moral lessons should be properly
implemented among students in school.

Students have great observation power. They observe their parents at home and their
teacher at school. They always repeat what they observe and this practice builds their character.

The method of teaching moral values to students is universal. It is the most important
duty of the teachers and parents. If a child observes his teachers/parents to be truthful and honest,
he/she will also absorb some of their virtues.

Most important Moral Values of a Student

Humility: This is the quality of being humble. You should know where you fit in with
respect to the bigger picture and always try to see what you don’t yet see.

Empathy: This is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing
from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position.

Integrity: Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and
uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. Integrity is
regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one’s actions.

Discipline: This is the quality of being able to behave and work in a controlled way
which involves obeying particular rules or standards.
 Teachers are the source of inspiration for students. The relationship between student and
teacher is very strong. Moral values can be taught at School. The process of learning for a child
is not magical. It is important that the student has a sound base of strong moral values. It calls for
much caution and observation from school.

What is Religion?

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” -Dalai Lama XIV

Religion is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “The belief in and worship of a

superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.”

The sociologist Durkheim, in his seminal book The Elementary Forms of the
Religious Life, defined religion as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to
sacred things.”

Essentially, religion is the relation between the individual and the supernatural which is
based on the belief that there exist some supernatural entities which created and govern the
world. The origin of religion is lost in the obscure past of human evolution and is believed to
have developed gradually with the evolution of humans from their primate ancestors. It is a
unique feature of man-kind though some primates are known to show pre-moral sentiments of
appreciation of the aesthetic, self-consciousness, sympathy and empathy for other members of
the kind, etc. which are considered to be pre-emptive steps of spirituality which breeds religion.

The theory of Evolutionary Psychology of Religion postulates that religion is an

outgrowth of brain architecture and as the neocortex of the human brain expanded, and reached a
peak value around five hundred thousand years ago, the human mind’s cognitive senses became
more sensitive to spirituality. This growth of cognitive senses clubbed with the newly developed
capability of speech and group-living helped humans to communicate their ideas to each other
and make causal conversations depicting their thoughts on natural events and imagination. It also
allowed people to unify as a community as individuals imitated each other to form a certain set
of beliefs and follow a certain set of rituals.
 Organized religion, however, is believed to have arisen in the Neolithic Age where the
advent of agriculture led to the transformation of hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural
societies living at one place, following a sedentary lifestyle.

According to Jared, tribes already had supernatural beliefs but the chieftains, or rulers, set
forward their own ideologies which always buttressed their own authority and acted like a God’s
man or at least, a person with direct contact with God. Thus, religion was formalized and
institutionalized to ensure obedience and concretize authority.

PRESENT DAY SCENARIO

Religion has evolved and changed throughout the centuries and across the world. It
would be impossible to know exactly how many religions have ever existed, or for that matter,
the number of religions that exist in the present. Several religions have been born out of other
religions and have grown to claim their own identity. Besides, several sects function even within
a particular religion; like Islam consists of both Shia Muslims as well as Sunni Muslims, the
Christians are divided into Catholics and Protestants, etc. At present, Christianity has the highest
number of adherents placed at 33.39% of the world population, Islam has 22.74% of the
population, Hindus consist of 13.8%, Buddhists amount to 6.77% while the Sikhs and the Jews
amount for far lesser than even 0.5% of the population. Further, 9.66% of the population is non-
religious and about 2% of the population are declared atheists.

A striking phenomenon of the above-mentioned statistics published by the Central

Intelligence Agency of the United States is that almost 10% of the population is non-religious
while another 2% are atheists, i.e. they believe that there exists no ‘God’ in the meaning
attributed to the term by most religions. The study of science and the encouragement given to
logic, rationale, and empirical studies may have weakened the tight grip of religion and its
institution, like the Church, which even a century ago held considerable power and significance
in the world’s political scenario. However, even now religion most often forms the basis of
conflict, discrimination, and segregation as is evident in the Syrian Civil war which is essentially
an ongoing war between the Shia dominated Government forces and allied groups with the Sunni
dominated rebel groups.
 The current conflict in Yemen is also an example where different sects of the same
religion are fighting for dominance and control. This reminds the world that how little has
changed from the times of the Christian ‘Holy’ Wars and the Islamic conquests of the 7th and
8th Centuries. Several violent conflicts have taken place across the world through time and
continue till date as people are still divided on the basis of religion and hatred is spewed between
different sects and religions. India is no stranger to religious conflicts which began way back in
the medieval ages with the Islamic Expansion and consequent conflict with Hindu rulers or
communities. Further, the Partition of India in 1947 which led to the formation of Pakistan and
later, Bangladesh was a bloody strife between the communities with tales of horror and
bloodshed during the time still recounted with a shudder.

Well after the partition too, irrespective of the secular nature of the republic portrayed
through its Constitution, violence against religious communities, like the Babri Masjid
demolition, and several religious riots have occurred throughout the country like the infamous
Bhagalpur riots of 1989, Godhra riots of 2002, etc. Across the world too, instances of violence
against religious communities, often resorting to acts of terrorism, are common

Thus, religion has evidently led to misery, conflict, persecution, segregation, disunity,
and wars throughout the history of human existence. Yet, the religious institutions hold sway
over the people and a huge majority of the population still adheres to one religion or the other. It
would thus, be important to know that what exactly are the functions of religion which make it
such an integral part of human society that it gets widespread approval despite its significant
drawbacks and inherently divisive nature.
 FUNCTIONS OF RELIGION

The debate on the existence of a ‘God’, or ‘the Creator’, has been a subject of debate for
ages without any conclusive result. However, the existence or non-existence of God has little to
do with religion cause, either way, religion definitely exists. Religion is not only the faith on the
existence of a God but also all the paraphernalia that follows those beliefs. It is an entire value
system, a way of life. A few of its important functions and their relevance in the present day
scenario is mentioned below-

Unity:

“God has no religion.” -Mahatma Gandhi

While religion’s roots may be traced back to humanly attempts to ensure obedience to a
central authority, it is beyond doubt that religion works as a strong unifying force within a
community. People who share common beliefs and follow similar rituals are also likely to feel an
innate oneness which unifies the population. It also propagates conformity which makes people
similar to each other till some extent, thus, reducing conflicts between individuals. However,
though religion seeks to bring unity within the community following the same religion, existence
of several and varied religions often leads to disunity and enmity between communities
following different religions as each side is convinced that their conviction on God and
spirituality is correct while other’s views are fundamentally flawed and deceiving.

This coupled with a perception that one needs to establish dominance on the other to
survive, leads people to conflict between religious groups and persecution of the weaker group of
the region by the stronger one. Durkheim had believed Religion to be the root of science as it
was a manifestation of an attempt to understand the surroundings but had predicted that in
modern times, religion would fade away due to its incapacity to explain modern life and give
way to the superior scientific rationality. This, as logical and expected as it sounds, did not
happen.
 One of the reasons for this was because they are so effective at constructing group
identities and at setting up conflict between the in- and out-groups. For all religions, there is an
“us” and a “them”. The fundamental teaching of all major religions, however, is always based on
tolerance, and none of them actually advocate the persecution of followers of other religions. For
instance, through the Quran Allah exhorts his followers to abide by justice; be benevolent; show
compassion to others as though they were our kith and kin; refrain from, and admonish others to
refrain from, such vices as can be harmful and are known as blatant evil; not transgress against
good, beneficent, peace-loving governments and to exhort others likewise.

If these six do’s and do not’s were put into practice, every country and every nation
would see nothing but peace. [vii] Similar is the stance of the Bible, the Old Testament, the New
Testament, and most other religious documents of importance.

Similar views about unity and peace have been presented throughout versions of the
Bible including Peters, John, Matthew, etc.

PEACE And NON-VIOLENCE

“Religion brings to man an inner strength, spiritual light, and ineffable peace.”

-Alexis Carrel

The purpose of religion is most noble and does not only purport to create a society of
tolerance but also attempts to maintain peace in the minds of the followers. It tries to ensure that
people reconcile themselves to their existence and reality; giving them hopes of a better future,
often through pictures of the after-life or heaven. The communists, especially Engels and Marx
dismissed this function of religion as unimportant and labeled religion itself as the “opium of the
poor”, but in doing so; they undermine this most important function of religion.

It gives a goal to directionless lives making them believe that their lives actually mean
something and that human existence is neither solitary nor pointless. This peace allows people to
lead their life following what they think is moral and would lead to them being blessed and loved
by God. This hope of eternal salvation keeps people going and is one of the most important
functions of religion without which, life with all its hardships, could become unbearable. It
strengthens the people and allows them to make moral, often selfless, decisions.

Most religious texts are strictly against violence and persecution. The 10 commandments
of the Christians states- ‘Thou shalt not kill.”

Jainism and Buddhism have non-violence as one of their principle tenets. However,
these, formerly noble principles have been distorted through the interpretations by the ‘god-men’
over the centuries. An instance of this was seen in Christianity for a good part of the 11th-13th
Century where the concept of ‘just’ or justified wars was in place. Those who fought in the name
of God were recognized as the Milites Christi, warriors or knights of Christ.

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns that took place during the 11th through
13th centuries against the Muslim Conquests. Originally, the goal was to recapture Jerusalem
and the Holy Land from the Muslims and support the besieged Christian Byzantine Empire
against the Muslim expansion into Asia Minor and Europe proper. In 1095, in a gross display of
interpretative powers and, manipulation of Holy texts, Pope Urban II, at the Council of
Clermont, raised the level of war from bellum iustum (“just war”), to bellum sacrum (“holy
war”). Thus, killing of people became not only justified but was seen as a moral duty; a service
to God!

MORALITY And SOCIAL CONTROL

“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” -Napoleon Bonaparte

Religion is undoubtedly one of the most effective means of social control pervading
throughout all activities of our being. Religion, right from our birth, controls our action and
thought processes. Through its rituals and teachings, it instils within us a system of beliefs and
customs which blocks our mind to other ideas and the threat of social action through rebukes,
criticism, and boycott ensures conformity to this, rather rigid, belief system.
 MacIver believed that religion and morality are simultaneous as well as complementary.
He thus, stated- “We cannot say that either the religious or the moral code came first just as we
cannot say that custom preceded morality or law. Moral codes have prepared the way for the
perpetuation of religious beliefs. Religious codes have strongly reinforced with their supernatural
sanctions the prevailing morals of the group.”

Note on morality and religion

It would be extremely tough, as well as impractical, to have laws encompassing

everything. For instance, most of us opine that we should behave decently and treat other people
‘well’. Now, if a law were to be set down defining what ‘well’ meant, it would be difficult to
make it exhaustive and further, it would be impossible to enforce and adjudge. It is, in fact,
undesirable to use the force of law to make members of the society conform to a certain way of
life, especially in a free or liberal society. This is where religion and social control comes in.
Religion does not normally punish people who do not abide by its teachings, but it instills a fear
of the supernatural in the minds of the people, Most often, the control exercised by religion is
informal, and one who defies it is not directly punished or harmed, but it imposed a moral force
and this blend of morality and indirect coercion through social institutions ensures conformity of
the people.

Often, the control exercised by religion has been outright unjust and oppressive. Islam
does not allow homosexuality and advocates stern punishment against all homosexuals as they
believe it is against God’s wishes. Hinduism and Christianity too hold a similar stance against
this natural phenomenon. Throughout the world, thus, homosexuals are tortured, boycotted and
sometimes even killed. Religion draws its power from the constant, ‘immutable’ truths and
refuses to believe in the relative nature of it all. Thus, any change is a threat to religion and it
urges religious institutions to act against them. The fanatical supporters of a religion always
consider themselves to be in a moral high ground as they do everything in the name of God. This
makes them guilt-less of their deeds and posed a huge risk to freedom and liberty of the people.
 CONCLUSION

It is evident that though the moral purpose of religion was indeed to play a very necessary
and useful role in the society, it has been empirically seen that it has often failed in its purpose
and has most often undergone a change in character through manipulation of the texts and
outrageous interpretations of its tenets by people who wield religious power and authority and
are proclaimed to be ‘men of God’. Irrespective of these perversions, however, religion continues
to play an inseparable part in human life for it brings unity and social order, inward and outward
peace and harmony, and most importantly, a hope and sense of purpose! In present times of
extreme stress and cut-throat competition where more and more are ready to forego all values
and morals to achieve their idea of ‘success’, religion tries to instill high morals and gives solace
to the hurt. Corrupt interpretation of religion and blind faith of its followers have done much
harm to mankind, but even so, religion sends a message of love and morality to several of its
believers.