The formation of children’s values in school is at the core of school curricula and educational frameworks in Europe (e.g., Lehrplan 21, Department of Education, 2014). Values express broad goals (kindness, curiosity) that are important to a person in life, and they direct human behaviour (Bardi & Schwartz, 2003). Schools are expected to develop children’s understanding of their own and others’ values, children’s ability to express their own values and pursue behaviours that help achieving them. According to the model of competences for democratic culture proposed by the Council of Europe (2016), “values are general beliefs that individuals hold about the desirable goals that should be striven for in life. They motivate action and they also serve as guiding principles for deciding how to act” (p. 36). Research into value development in childhood and adolescence is scarce, but there has been a steep increase of publications, in recent years (e.g., Döring, Daniel, & Knafo-Noam, 2016), which highlight the impact of the social context and value-based educational goals and of the school (e.g., Berson & Oreg, 2016). However, the field is still surprisingly under-researched, and there is a lack of evidence of how children’s values develop and how they are formed in school.

Being conceptually grounded in Schwartz’s (1994) theory of human values – the most researched theoretical values framework – this symposium aims to help fill this gap. It brings together empirical research from Switzerland, the UK, Portugal, and Italy, and discussant is from Israel. It addresses the following research questions:

• How are values represented in school curricula, and how do teachers bring these values into the classroom?
• How do values differ between schools, and is language important?
• How can children’s value development in schools be researched – cross-culturally and in times of a global pandemic?

The first presentation by Oeschger, de Graaf, Döring, and Makarova is based on a qualitative content analysis of primary school curricula in Switzerland and the UK and reveals a wealth of values, some of which are shared, some of which are country-specific. The second presentation by Scholz, Makarova, and Bardi provides insights from an SNSF project on ‘The formation of children’s values in primary school’, showing how instruments to assess children’s values can be adapted to fit their developmental background, also looking at both in-person and digital measures. The third presentation by Ramos, Rodrigues, Tendais, da Costa, and Alvarez shows how values are reflected in the new Portuguese curriculum and presents a way to assess children’s and adolescents’ values in Portuguese schools. The fourth presentation by Auer explores children’s value priorities in schools in a multilingual European border region (Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Italy). This quantitative study shows differences in value priorities between children attending German, Italian, and Ladin schools.

Given the lack of research on the formation of children’s values in the school context, all four presentations present highly novel findings in the field, aiming to help fill this gap through studying children’s values in the school context.

The Discussion by Benish-Weisman is integrating the empirical findings from the four studies and developing a roadmap for future research on value development values education.

This symposium is interdisciplinary, integrating viewpoints from educational sciences and psychology. 

Bardi, A., & Schwartz, S. H. (2003). Values and behavior: Strength and structure of relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1207-1220. doi: 10.1177/0146167203254602 Berson, Y., & Oreg, S. (2016). The role of school principals in shaping children’s values. Psychological Science, 27, 1539-1549. doi: 10.1177/0956797616670147 Council of Europe (2016). Competences for democratic culture: Living together as equals in culturally diverse democratic societies. Strasbourg Cedex: Council of Europe. Retrieved from https://rm.coe.int/16806ccc07, [January 15, 2018]. Department of Education (2014). Guidance on promoting British values in schools published. Retrieved from www.gov.uk/government/news/guidance-on-promoting-british-values-in-schools-published, [March 20, 2018]. Deutschschweizer Erziehungsdirektoren-Konferenz (D-EDK) (n. d.). Lehrplan 21 [Curriculum 21]. Retrieved from www.lehrplan21.ch, [March 26, 2019]. Döring, A. K., Daniel, E., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2016). Value development from middle childhood to early adulthood: New insights from longitudinal and genetically-informed research. Special section. Social Development, 25, 571–671. doi: 10.1111/sode.12177 OECD (2019). OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030: Conceptual Learning Framework. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/learning-compass-2030/OECD_Learning_Compass_2030_concept_note.pdf, [March 26, 2019] Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Are there universal aspects in the content and structure of human values? Social Issues, 50, 19-45. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1994.tb01196.x