Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education The Final Report of ...

We had the focus on giving to others…One staff
member embedded it in every aspect of her
curriculum. She did have a stable cohort of students
for about a four-week period, which for us is really
quite significant and exciting. She used explicit
teaching of values, the core values, each day with
her students…the young people [had] to come
up with a good thing that they were grateful for
every day while they were at school, and within the
context of young people facing court, young people
who were dealing with, you know, horrific life
circumstances. Initially that was very difficult...but
in the end they would come out with some fairly
profound insight into their own condition, and the
changes that [were] occurring in their thinking...
They were able to actually sit back and reflect that,
despite being in a sea of trouble, there was always
something positive that they could focus on, and
that was very, very powerful.
The teacher and her class were discussing ways of
giving and they…decided to focus on the Grafton
Women’s Refuge as a fantastic avenue to not only
engage in some healing of some of the issues early
in their life, but a way of giving to mums and
kids in distress. So they thought, ‘Well how can we
give How can we, locked up in secure care with
no money, no resources, give to mums and kids in
distress’, and they…made Anzacs and gingerbread
men and gave them to the women’s refuge to
give to mums and kids when they’d arrive in the
refuge. And they engaged in a very, very large
artwork, into which went a lot of thought...as to
what they would represent in their artwork and
the way of giving to mums and kids when they
arrive…It is based on an ocean theme because they
thought the ocean gave an automatic calming feel
to mums and kids. It is also filled with symbolism
and it’s filled with Aboriginal artistic designs. It’s a
stunning piece of work…
Arising out of our most significant change is the
realisation…that there is...a fundamental place
for values education in our schools, irrespective of
whether it’s a short-term remand of a few days, or
in fact for longer periods, and there are so many
unique and creative ways for us to give, and for
our students to give, and to feel good about it.
Key outcomes
• Participants reported that the detention centres felt more humane and normalised as a result
of the positive values education work.
• The whole of centre approach, where the youth workers and teachers attended the national
gatherings and worked together on the project, is a model that other centres want to implement
because of the unifying effects of the collaboration.
• Teachers noted calmer classrooms and improvements in the quality of student work.
• The place of values education as a pedagogical as well as moral imperative and the possibilities
this created for developing exciting, innovative curriculum, quality teaching and service learning
reinforced the ‘troika’ principle.
• The project enhanced relationships between staff and students, and between centres and
their surrounding communities, which broke down stereotypes and improved harmony within
the centres and with outsiders and improved students’ perception of their own value to the
outside community.
• Participants and cluster leaders reported evidence of improvements in multiracial relations and
a reduction in behavioural problems and racial abuse.
• Students who positively engaged in role modelling and peer mentoring appeared to have a stronger
sense of now and the future, and a shift from the egocentricity and self-centredness that generally
characterises this cohort.
Section 3: Accounts of the VASP cluster projects
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