Help Students Develop their Own Values, Beliefs, and Opinions

Decades ago, Palmer (1998) reminded us that teaching is a moral enterprise. “We teach who we are,” he wrote (p. 2). Because effective teaching begins with strong student-teacher relationships, being genuine with our students seems like a good thing. And it is. But teaching – like everything else we do – is value-laden. We often reveal our personal values when we teach, sometimes without even realizing it, simply by what we say or the words we choose (Roche, 2009). In worst cases, we intentionally push our personal values onto our students both directly and indirectly by providing unbalanced coverage of multi-faceted issues, offering (or not offering) praise or acknowledgement, or expressing our personal viewpoints so strongly that students who disagree are silenced.

Teachers are certainly entitled to their own values, beliefs, and opinions; but we must not indoctrinate – or attempt to change – our students’ values, beliefs, and opinions through our work as teachers (Gooblar, 2019; OAJ, 2020). It is professionally unethical to use our classrooms or our authority as teachers to force students’ adoption of what we think they should believe. The professional responsibility of teachers is to promote knowledge and skill within our academic disciplines, including learning standards, accreditation requirements, and course objectives (Gooblar, 2019; OAJ, 2020). Through the teaching of our academic disciplines, we can – and should – provide rich, balanced, and non-judgmental opportunities for students to develop their own values, beliefs, and opinions (Elias, 2017; Roche, 2009) – even when they do not align with ours.

Resources

Elias, M. J. (2017). Helping your students identify their values. Edutopia.
Gooblar, D. (2019, February 19). What is ‘indoctrination’? And how do we avoid it in class?
OAJ (2020). Professional ethics: Teachers values and ethical principles.
Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Roche, M. W. (2009). Should faculty members teach virtues and values? That is the wrong question. Liberal Education, 95(3).

Contributor:
Jana Hunzicker, Ed.D.
Associate Dean, College of Education and Health Sciences
Professor, Department of Education, Counseling, and Leadership
Bradley University