MA in Leadership Teaching and Values in Education

Assignament Tutor : Dr. Judith Suissa

Final assignment

Module : Values in Education and Schooling

Essay : Ideology, School and Values

Andréa de Souza

Institute of Education

University of london

2006

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Introduction

The purpose of this essay, which is going to be empirical and bibliographical, is to

discuss the explicit values to be taught in Brazilian schools. These values are outlined

in the national curriculum under the topic: Transversal Themes. These themes are

supposed to be included in the existing subject areas of the national curriculum. That

is, values are meant to be taught through each subject from their perspective. The

Transversal Themes belong to a bigger document named National Curriculum

Parameters – NCPs (Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais – PCNs). The main argument

to be discussed throughout this paper is related to the following question: Whose

values are these that are supposed to be taught in school? The structure of this paper is

going to be the following: first, an overview of the statements described in the

National Curriculum Parameters – NCPs (Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais –

PCNs) is going to be offered. Then, it will be suggested that those values can not be

suitable for the whole country. Furthermore, some theory about teaching values in

schools is going to be used as the basis for the discussion.

The school as we know it today does not have a long history. Although it maintains

some traditional features, their identity and role have been transformed “to

accommodate themselves or adjust to the new societal demands and expectations”

(Kazamias, 2001) of the modern world. In Brazil, for example, new educational

policies have been implemented in order to answer the new trends of the globalised

world and the changes in the national ideologies and politics. From the historical point

of view, the school as an institution is often seen as responsible for regulating social

relationships, for example, demanding obedience to rules and imposing punishment on

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pupils. It is also described as “a site that smoothly provides the knowledge skills and

social relations necessary for the functioning of the capitalist economy and dominant

society” (Giroux, 1985), p. xi). Nevertheless, Brazilian schools are no longer expecting

obedience from the pupils at the present time. There is a necessity to develop their

motivation to work together and make them become responsible and an active part of

their own process of education.

Different approaches to teach values

Compulsory education in Brazil has a total of eleven years. Although schools have

always dealt with values they did not appear outlined in the formal curriculum in the

same way they appear nowadays. Before the implementation of the Brazilian National

Curriculum Reform in 1996, there was not a wide schematic set of values to be taught

in schools. Only two subject areas dealt specifically with values. These subject areas

were: Civic and Moral Education (Educação Moral e Cívica), in primary schools; and

Social and Political Brazilian Organization (Organização Social e Política do Brasil)

for secondary schools. These subject areas were concerned with the political and moral

interest of the military government that ruled Brazil between l964 and l984.

During the period of the military dictatorship, Brazilian people had their freedom of

expression restricted by censorship and the school played an important role in the

transmission of the values in an indoctrinal manner through the subject areas Civic and

Moral Education and Social and Political Brazilian Organization. Teachers of these

subjects were supposed to instill values highlighting personal attitudes towards

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patriotism, work, honesty and courage that were considered important for that political

moment. That is, the school played a role of transmitting the official ideology.

With re-democratization in Brazil, changes were necessary especially in the

educational field because of the role the school plays in politics and in “transmitting

societal values” (Lee, 2001)p. 33). In 1988, during the process of re-democratization, a

new constitution was written. One of its statements demanded an educational reform,

but that occurred only in 1996. The educational reform was established with the

implementation of the Brazilian Education Guidelines and Bases – Law 9394/96 (Lei

de Diretizes e Bases da Educacão Nacional – LDB). The school’s role of transmitting

and instilling values did not change with the changes in politics. The changes appear in

the approach used to educate in values. What and how values are going to be coped

with become a new matter of consideration for schools. Because educating pupils in

values requires teachers’ training to do their work more effective. The training can also

prevent teachers from professing very personal beliefs, which may have serious

implications for the school community, in particular in the lives of the pupils.

The implementation of the new curriculum

The Brazilian Education Guidelines and Bases – Law 9394/96 (LDB) has been the

main legal reference to the formulations of the proposal changes for the formal

education. It supports the principle and the ends of the National Education (PCN,

1999, p.19). This law states a national project, whose main objective is to recover the

social function of the school: “knowledge transmission and pupils’ preparation to

exercise the citizenship” (PCN, 1998, p. 41). That is, pupils have to learn more than

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specific subjects. They are supposed to learn other skills to develop useful behaviour

for the demands of the globalised world. Amongst other statements, according to this

Law, the national government became responsible for elaborating a National Plan of

Education. The law also asserts that the States, Federal District and Cities that

constitute the country should collaborate with the national government in organizing

the educational systems (PCN, 1999, p. 40).

According to the Law 9394/96 (p.10), compulsory school based education is divided in

three different stages: the first stage is infant education, whose objective is the full

development of the child up to six year of age (p.13). The second stage is the

elementary education cycle that lasts for eight years and aims the development of the

pupil to exercise citizenship. This stage also aims to give pupils the means to progress

in work and subsequent studies (p. 13). The third and final stage of basic education is

the secondary school whose main objective is the development of the competences to

learn continuously, with autonomy and criticality in different levels of more complex

studies (PCNs, 1999, p. 22).

The National Curriculum Parameters (NCPs), created after the implementation of the

Brazilian Education Guidelines and Bases – Law 9394/96 (LDB), is divided in two

parts. One part is designed for the elementary education cycle (primary school) and the

other one for the secondary school. Although there are two different documents, they

have some common characteristics. For example, a common base in Portuguese,

Mathematics, and a distinct part that is supposed to be adequate to the differences of

the local community, their culture and their economic status (PCN, 1998, p. 57).

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To promote the teaching of values, the NCPs introduced an extra document called

Transversal Themes that have to integrate and rule the ongoing events in and out of

schools. Under the title of Transversal Themes, there are the sub-titles: Ethics, Cultural

Plurality, Environment, Sexual Orientation, Health, Labour and Consumption. These

themes represent some of the social problems several peoples have been facing. The

Transversal Themes are supposed to integrate all the subject areas, that is, they are not

supposed to be dealt as study areas. They must be taught continuously and should

appear in every school action. Yet, their inclusion as part of the formal curriculum has

not solved problems like, disrespect, injustice, etc, in the daily lives of the pupils.

When they cross the school border, they face situations that contradict what they have

just listened to or experienced in the classrooms. The “values promoted do not always

inform the behaviour” (Talbot and Tate, 1997, p. 2) of the adults in general.

The ideas for moral education in the National Curriculum Parameters are not enough to

change people’s behaviour and shape their personality. There is a need to reflect

critically about the prescribed values for formal education. The good result of this kind

of education in values depends on different factors. First, it depends on the institution

and their representatives, in particular, the teachers. Second, it depends on the other

segments of the society interested in the inclusion of young people in the globalised

world. Without commitment on the part of the government, educators and the pupils,

and other organisations interested in the improvement of education, the aims stated for

the formal education, like “acquisition of knowledge and the skill of forming attitudes

and values” (PCNs 1998) will not be reached.

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The kind of knowledge mentioned in the NCPs has to do with the development of the

pupils’ capacity for social participation. That is, besides transmitting information, the

school has to provide conditions for pupils to develop their abilities to become active

participants in social events and if necessary modify some social relations. The

development of those abilities can be through pupils’ participation in school events, for

instance. The school is supposed to articulate its actions in a way that the pupils can

experience justice, for example. That means an education for citizenship through

concrete example of how things work. Pupils` learning has to be by understanding

their situation and their environment in a way that they become able to change their

existence.

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 27), “education shall

be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening

of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding,

tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups…” However, can

schools and teachers teach the pupils all these values? Although pupils spend part of

their lifetime in schools, different things from those learned in schools happen outside

its boundaries, and most of the times the experience the pupils have out of school do

not correspond to what they live or hear inside the school.

Very similar to the statements of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that has a

common ethical principle of justice, respect, equality, etc., the Law 9394/96 (article

27) demands that the curriculum contents of basic education imbue fundamental values

to the social interest, to the rights and duties of the citizens and respect to the common

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wellbeing and democratic order. The evidence is that the educational proposal

described in the NCPs, are strongly related to the learning and teaching of values.

Some statements found in the National Curriculum Parameters - NCPs

(Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais – PCNs)

As predicated in the law 9394/96 (LDB), the National Plan of Education was written

and received the name of National Curriculum Parameters (Parâmetros Curriculares

Nacionais – PCNs). One of the main objectives of the plan was to lead to a more

standard work all over the Brazilian territory in order to ensure that all pupils have

access to the curriculum. The NCPs are seen as general guidelines, schools and

teachers are expected to adapt them to their own cultural and regional context. The

concept of the word curriculum adopted for the National Curriculum Parameters is not

the same adopted in the past. Historically, the word curriculum meant the content of

each subject to be taught in the different courses of the formal education. For the

current legislation, “curriculum means the principles and goals of the educational

project” (PCN, 1998, p. 49).

The changes in legislation did not change the traditional role of the school in

transmitting systematic knowledge and teaching values. What makes the school today

different from the past is that it is more democratic and the values to be professed in

schools are explicit described in the Transversal Themes of the NCPs. One of the aims

of the transversal themes is to guide an education in values. The inclusion of these

themes in the formal curriculum is intended to educate the pupils to exercise

citizenship, involving values like mutual respect; justice that has the principle of

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respecting rights; dialogue to get to an agreement; and, solidarity, value by which

people show their commitment to supporting each other.

As an educational project, the national curriculum is supposed to be flexible to assure

equal opportunity for all children to receive good quality education regardless their

different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Although the law grants equality,

there are differences in culture, values, ideologies and mainly economic disparity

present in Brazil. These differences have different sources. One of them is the size of

the country that has a continental dimension and each area has its own geographical

and social characteristics. The difference in income in the different areas of the country

also plays an important role in the way the school is viewed and the role it plays for

each community in different areas. The flexibility of the statements of the NCPs gives

schools some degree of “autonomy to adjust their pedagogy and organization of the

formal curriculum according to the context and reality of their local communities”

(PCN, 1999, p. 17).

Ethics in the National Curriculum Parameters (NCPs)

In this section I am going to describe and discuss the central values of the Transversal

Themes. According to the National Curriculum Parameters the theme Ethics aims at

“the development of the moral autonomy” (PCN, 1999, p. 95) by the pupils. Because

there are a number of theories about the theme ethics, it is important to analyse the

suggestions given in the NCPs to deal with this topic in a transversal manner. An

important point is that the social circumstances, where the teaching and learning

happens, make it difficult to select what values must be taught. Therefore, the

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suggestion of teaching ethics in all educational activity in schools gives an idea that the

goal is to guide the pupils to critical thinking. By developing this ability, pupils can

form their own opinion and make their choices. Another important aspect of teaching

ethics according to the NCPs refers to the politics of equality. The document

presupposes an education that fits to every person although it must follow a national

parameter.

The theme ethics appears in the official document divided in four blocks: respect,

justice, dialogue and solidarity. The first block is about Respect and refers to the

individual and his personal relations with the other members of the group. It also

implies the rights of receiving equal opportunities. In schools, equal opportunities can

be translated as the right of equal education even when there are ethnic, social and

cultural differences in the same group of pupils.

The second block is about the theme Justice. It has to do with Respect concerning to

legal dimensions and equality of rights. Pupils are supposed to learn to value justice as

an attitude against the violation of the rights. This attitude is based on “Humane

Theories of Justice that focus on what we deserve simply because we are members of

the human species” (Jencks, 1998). That is, all the dissimilarities must be taken in

consideration when justice is claimed. Sometimes this theory can cause moral

dilemmas because of incoherence and different opinions of those ones involved in the

analyses of the criteria and legitimacy of the rules. These rules may be from different

environment like, school or other social groups.

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The third block is about Solidarity. The development of the solidarity attitude must be

through actions in the schools. Solidarity can be translated as mutual respect, an

engagement in helping each other not only in small groups, but also, in a wider manner

out of the school. Pupils have to learn that solidarity can be expressed in every action

towards other people in and out of school through mutual respect and dialogue.

Dialogue, which has a lot to do with the democratic school, is the fourth block of the

Ethics theme. It is, amongst the other values, the one to be worked in a way to make

people to leave in harmony, or at least, make them live together besides the plurality

found in the society. The practice of the dialogue plays an important role in the

process of learning for citizenship. Democracy in politics or in the educational policies

is a way of socializing the differences in several levels, for example, the cultural

diversity in schools and freedom to express this diversity.

According to the NCPs, all the participants of the educational process should profess

and practice these four principles: Respect, Justice, Solidarity and Dialogue. The NCPs

state that teachers are supposed to train pupils in “ethical values and the development

of intellectual autonomy and critical thinking” (1999). However, teachers that are the

most important transmitters of values to pupils do not receive enough training to deal

with this area, moral education. Without an appropriate training, there is a possibility

to profess individual beliefs. I agree with Haydon when he says that “Despite

widespread recognition within teacher training and in schools of society’s plurality, no

adequate preparation exists to assist teachers who have to differentiate between no-

negotiable values and those which remain a matter of choice” (1997). Because

teachers are embodied of values received from different institutions outside the schools

like the family, formal education and other settings.

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The role of the teacher

Looking back at the outlines of the national curriculum and the transversal themes, it is

possible to tell that the goal of those set of values is to give moral education to the

pupils. Even though they come from a universal set of values, there are not clear

statements that explain why those specific values were chosen to be professed in

Brazilian schools. Then, other questions rise about the aim of teaching morality. First,

is the school able to shape the behaviour of the pupils without indoctrination? Second,

is it possible to develop moral values without the support of the other segments of the

society, for example, the family, the local community, etc.?

Although the approach to teaching values seems to be different from the past, it is

worth reinforcing that many teachers were educated in the old system and they tend to

reproduce that kind of education. In an implicit manner, the school tries to regulate the

pupils’ behaviour through the imposition of rules and sometimes by punishment. That

old approach used to teach values is still reflected in the schools today. The law may

guarantee the right of a democratic education, but it does not guarantee that the

representatives of the school as an institution follow all its prescriptions while acting in

the classrooms. Sometimes the democratic discourse does not match with the practice.

The reason for such contradiction is that teachers received insufficient training and

development to practice moral education in the classrooms and promote the

“development of the pupils’ autonomy and critical thinking” (PCN, 1999). The lack of

training and understanding of the new proposals can lead to misinterpretation of the

law statements that contribute negatively to the effectiveness of the formal education.

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Until the implementation of the NCPs and the Transversal Themes, teachers were

subject experts. Nowadays they are supposed to be more than delivers of information.

They are expected to prepare the pupils for adult life. Due to the social development in

different fields, such as, the new technologies that facilitate communication and access

to any kind of information, teachers are no longer the only source of knowledge. At

present, the role of teachers is to teach pupils how they can use the information they

receive in and out of school to improve their own lives and make something good for

the society as a whole. That is, pupils have to be taught how to transform the

information into knowledge.

The approach to educate is replaced because neither society nor its values are static.

So, the new outlined values to be transmitted in schools should be implemented in all

subjects that constitute the formal curriculum. They should integrate all the study areas

in a cross-curriculum perspective. In the NCPs, curriculum is described as “an

expression of principles and aims of the educational project, and they need to be

flexible to promote discussions and re-elaboration in the classroom, because the

teacher is the one who translates those principles into educational practice” (1998, p.

49). To translate those principles, that are literally concepts, teachers have to express

their own values, even though it may represent some risk. The problem is that there is

no general training on how to approach such issues. As Talbot and Tate said teachers

“cannot teach well without making it clear some of the things they value, for example,

truth, knowledge and wisdom” (1997, p. 8).

Although the NCPs presuppose the existence of dissimilarities all over the country,

there is a gap between the statements of the law that predicts equality and quality and

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the practice. This gap is the result of the lack of preparation of schools and teachers to

educate pupils for citizenship in an appropriate manner. That is, give them a kind of

education that enable them to choose what is best for them, and at the same time help

them to become “a productive member of society” (Winch, 1999).

Despite the fact that there is a set of contents to be taught, there is no formal theory to

be used to teach values. To educate in values requires well-prepared teachers to act

ethically in order to avoid transmitting individual beliefs that do not correspond to the

set of values considered universal. Teachers need to be aware of the implications of

transmitting individual beliefs. Because of the lack of theory and teachers’

preparation, it is not rare to come across situations of conflict in schools. In a complex

society like the Brazilian one, some rules and beliefs do not fit to everybody, albeit

what a person does in his private life is not anybody else’s affair.

An example of a situation of conflict in school is a pupil showing his indignation

against a teacher’s opinion about the use of drugs. During a class discussion about

drugs, a teacher told his pupils that to use drugs during a party causes no harm. The

indignant pupil argued that he was conscious of the damages caused by drugs, but

some of his classmates were not. This kind of situation has to do with the human

nature and the way each one manages his life. This is risky, because many segments of

the society are engaged in campaigns against drugs. The school through teachers as

representatives of the society has its share in educating the children about the damages

caused by the use of drugs. I believe that a teacher has to be very ethical when dealing

with this kind of theme.

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The situation described above can make clashes of opinions rise. Consequently,

discord between people may occur at different levels. The fact of expressing approval

to the use of drugs have some moral implication and goes against one of the values

outlined in the Transversal Themes of the NCPs that refers to Health. There is a

special reference to this topic in the official document. Although it is not a new subject

for the society, its consumption is a matter of concern because it affects the physical,

intellectual and emotional responses of a person to the reality.

At this point, I am going to argue that teachers’ education is a requirement if behaviour

changes are to be seen in pupils. Without a theory to guide teachers’ practices and

because the curriculum is not controlled anymore, it is necessary to have more

qualified professionals of education with a high degree of moral commitment. This

moral commitment will prevent teachers from instilling their own personal beliefs

when dealing with polemic topics like religion, the use of drugs, etc. Teachers`

education can make them more conscientious of their important role in helping pupils

to find new ways of acting and making a positive difference in their lives. If well

prepared, teachers can develop pupils’ critical thinking, which is one of the aims of the

curriculum, to help them make their own choices.

With a set of values underpinning formal education, teachers should be trained to

understand the aims and make their practice more suitable. Even though the set of

values to be taught is considered universal and should be obvious for everyone, there

are other values affecting the participants of the modern society, in this case, the

participants are the teachers, who may interpret their roles in different ways. These

ways of interpretation depend on several aspects, like the kind of school they work for,

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their individual characteristics and their professional and personal backgrounds.

Understanding themselves and their role, teachers can teach better and make pupils

understand and believe that they can interfere and change reality.

The situation of teachers today is that many of them do not believe in the power of

educating for changes. It happens because education is supposed to be a teamwork that

depends on the institution, in this case, state schools, and all the participants in the

upbringing of the young people. Besides the challenge of shaping attitude in pupils,

there is another relevant issue about educating in values. It has to do with the changes

in the organization of the society that affects the role of teachers in schools. Amongst

all the changes, the family structure of the modern society does not follow the old

models. The traditional basic unit in society consisted of two parents and their

children. In this new age, the families have a different structure. When pupils come to

school, they bring together their values that have to do with how they have grown up.

The structure of the families changes as economic and social factors change. At

present time, some homes have only one person and can not be called family in the

sense it used to be known. Sometimes, people choose to live alone because they want

to be independent. Other times, they have no choice. They divorce or their partner dies.

There is also a great number of single parents, i.e., with only one of the parents ruling

the home, particularly homes ruled by women. All of these facts have influence on

how the young people see themselves and how they relate to other people. The school,

then, has to support them and “make them learn to take on responsibility and meet

their obligations to others” (Williamson, 1997, p. 103). Nevertheless, the school

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cannot do that without the help of all the other segments of the society. The outcomes

of children moral education will be the combination of their experience through life.

Conclusion

In this essay, I discussed the teaching of values in schools. Teaching values requires

theory and teachers training. The education of the teachers is reflected in their

practices in the classroom. Teachers’ continuing development is necessary because

there are no permanent rules of behaviour for educators, pupils or in the society in

general. Through the official document, the law tries to guarantee every child to have

access to equality and quality in educational provision for the demands of the

globalised world. Because of the lack of theory, teachers` training and development, it

is difficult to determine whose and which values must be taught. The plurality of the

society demands a common ethical basis like justice, respect, solidarity and values that

belong to a set of universal values. Nevertheless, the practice of teaching values has

been through example and the teachers have focused more on behaviour than on the

development of critical thinking.

The Brazilian National Curriculum Parameters (NCPs) is an attempt to standard the

teaching practice in terms of teaching values for a globalised world. Although it is a

flexible document to give communities room to guarantee their own culture and

maintenance of their values, the NCPs propose a kind of pedagogical work that tries to

shape pupils attitudes in the same way, that is, convenient for the demands of the

globalised world. However, without a theory and teacher training the clashes between

the participants in the educational chain are inevitable. It happens because not always

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teachers` words fit their actions, or their words do not fit the social conventions of

certain social groups. As Williamson (1997, p. 96) stated, “Morality has to be lived

and experienced; this is the way in which it is learned”.

According to the Transversal Themes of the NCPs, teaching ethics has to do with

equality. This equality does not fit for the entire Brazilian territory because the

Brazilian society is very complex. Its complexity is present in different fields, for

example, ethnic, economic and cultural differences. Therefore, ethics should guide all

the other themes. If the goal is to teach values as a “means of acting with the intention

of making a positive difference in the lives of the pupils and society as whole” (Fullan,

2001), p. 13) a high degree of commitment is necessary to shape pupils` behaviour.

Not only should the teachers be committed to respect, justice, dialogue and solidarity

for the sake of the children. Every social organization has their share of responsibility

in educating the young generation. Without the support of the society, the school can

not guarantee the development of the pupils for citizenship as the law demands.

The learning of values shall be a continuous process in everyone’s life. The continuity

of this learning process depends on how well teachers and schools empower the pupils

to think for themselves and continue to learn along their lives. Pupils learning “ethical

values and the development of intellectual autonomy and critical thinking” (PCN,

1999) will depend a great deal on how well prepared the teachers are. If well prepared

teachers can transform theories, methodologies and approaches in tools to help them

lead the pupils to think for themselves and live their lives nourished by respect, justice,

dialogue and solidarity.

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