Primary school teacher’s personals and professionals values: a qualitative research

Abstract

Values continue to play an integral part in education across the globe, but
the importance of teachers’ personal values is often overlooked. It has been
argued that teachers need explicit opportunities to reflect on their own personal
and professional values to enable them to model what they ask of
their students with integrity. The purpose of this research was to explore
the intrinsic values of primary school professionals and the publicly espoused
values of the educational systems in which they work. This research
is the result of a tre-year funded empirical study carried out by the authors
in primary schools in Bari. Research was undertaken in four schools in a
range of educational contexts. In each school, individual conversations
were undertaken with six key professionals with different roles to elicit personal
constructs or values. Data were analysed qualitatively. Qualitative
analysis suggested relationships between the professional roles of the participants
and predominant values themes. This small-scale study supports
the importance of dialogue and self- awareness in professional life and ongoing
professional development.