In this article, I share a classroom unit that facilitates exploration of culturally based values, value clashes, and the shift of values with experience, age, and circumstance. The unit leads students to make choices upholding what's most important to them and provides tools for successful cross-cultural communication. First published in NCTE’s The English Journal, July 2015. Vol. 104, No. 6, 61-67. Print.
Several years ago, while designing a
media literacy activity for my high school English class, I came across a list
of 418 value words on Steve Pavlina’s website, “Personal Development for Smart
People” (“List of Values”). I printed
this list for my students to use when analyzing advertisements. I wanted students to discern that when a watch
advertisement uses a picture of JFK along with his quote, “We choose to go to
the moon,” they are receiving a message that Ambition and Striving should be
important to them. My students found this
task difficult. I discovered that for
them to think critically about what the media was telling them should be important,
they first had to spend time thinking about what values meant in their own
lives. They had to explore which values
their parents, teachers, and cultures had embedded in them, and identify
examples of how they expressed these values in their lives. Finally, they had to ask themselves, what is
important to me?
In recent years, Values-based Education
has become increasingly common. While
headmaster at a school in Oxfordshire, Dr. Neil Hawkes pioneered a version of
Values-based Education in his school community, and then founded the
International Values-based Education Trust.
Hawkes now works as an international education consultant “leading 'a
quiet revolution' to support hundreds of schools to be values-based,” and has
helped the Australian government introduce Values-based Education into its
schools (VbE: Values Based Education).
In his model, ethical vocabulary, such
as Respect, Courage, Honesty, Compassion and Integrity, is introduced to young
children with the expectation that embracing these values will elicit positive
dispositions and self regulation. Hawke
reports that such an approach “improves student and teacher wellbeing, academic
diligence, the teaching and learning environment, student-teacher
relationships, and partial parental and family participation” (VbE: Values Based Education).
Using Pavlina’s list of values and an
adolescent-appropriate adaptation of Hawke’s approach, I created a Values Unit in
which students explore their culturally-based values, value clashes, and the notion
that values shift with experience, age, and circumstance. The unit builds rapport between the students
and myself, establishes my classroom as a safe place to take risks and
celebrate sharing, and leads to their first major writing assignment. Ultimately,
students will write an essay answering the question, “Which three values define
you most?
I begin by putting students into pairs
and giving them the list of values. I ask them to figure out what these words
have in common. If they are stuck, I ask them to start with what part of speech
the words are, and then whether they are abstract or concrete nouns. Dr. Hawke argues that we cannot assume that
the vocabulary of values will be introduced to children unless schools include
it in their curriculum (VbE: Values Based
Education). Students typically come up with, “characteristics,” “ways to
describe people,” and “beliefs.”
Finally, we arrive at the definition of a value: something a person
thinks is important in life.
We then discuss where values come from.
Are we born with them, or do we learn them?
From where do we learn them? Students easily come up with family
members, friends, and teachers. I help them see that media and religion also
play a role. When they offer “society”
as an answer, I lead them into a discussion about culturally based values.
Since my classes consist of
immigrants and international students, this discussion aids their understanding
of their experiences in the U.S.
I preface the discussion by
sharing that sociologists have observed that Eastern and Western cultures
typically cherish different values. I
share opposing value statements, and ask
which statements belong to Western cultures and which belong to Eastern
cultures. For example, two opposing
statements are, “Time is the greatest value” and “Relationships are the
greatest value” (“Contrast in Values” 1).
For each statement, I present a scenario. For this one, I tell a story about spending
time with my grandmother and how her long-winded story and her continuing to
pour tea for me is going to make me late for class. Do I stay with my grandmother and arrive late
to class, or do I cut her off and tell her I need to go because I am going to
be late? If Relationships are more
important to me than Time, I will choose to stay with her until she finishes
her story and we drink our tea. If Time
is more important to me, I will interrupt her, and tell her I need to go. Of
course, there are other values clashing here as well, such as Family vs.
Education. It is difficult to narrow
down a dilemma to just two opposing values, but still, it is not hard for
students to decide which choice they would make depending on their cultural
upbringing. They don’t hesitate to answer that Americans or Western cultures
typically value Time above Relationships.
We come up with examples of the importance of Time in the United States:
a teacher marks you tardy to class if you are five minutes late, workers are
expected to produce as much as possible in as short a time as possible, lunch
breaks are clocked, and we are annoyed if traffic makes us late or if we have
to wait more than five minutes for a friend to meet us.
I have also facilitated this discussion
using Yang Liu’s “East Meets West” minimalistic visualizations, in which a
series of pictures compares Eastern and Western tendencies on societal aspects
such as Attitude Towards Punctuality, Independence vs. Dependence, Waiting in
Line, and Problem-Solving Approach (Liu “East Meets West: An Infographic Portrait by Yang Liu”). Yang Liu based these drawings on her
observations from living in both China, where she was born, and Germany, where
she has lived since she was fourteen. Each
picture is divided into a blue background (The West) and a red background (The
East), and contains a caption.
Independent
vs. Dependent: 
Attitude
Towards Punctuality: 
Problem-Solving
Approach: 
Waiting in Line: 
I
put students in groups and hand out several different pictures with the
captions removed; their task is to figure out what the visualizations are
depicting. Eventually, students discern
that the blue background pictures represent The West, and the red represent The
East. Students enjoy this activity very
much, and the classroom is filled with laughter of recognition and a sense of
affirmation of the cultural differences they’ve noticed and felt while living
in the U.S. It is important to remind students
that the pictures are broad generalizations, and that no culture fits perfectly
into either the red or blue categories, but that it’s interesting to note tendencies
and patterns. In fact, Liu herself
expressed that these depictions were “only based on personal experiences” in
the 26 years she’d lived in both countries (“Interview with Artist Yang Liu –
East Meets West”).
After this discussion of our culturally
based values, students begin their prewriting activities for the essay,
starting with a Values Survey. This
survey asks students to circle five values from the Values List and rank them
in order of personal importance. Then
they must answer questions such as:
·
How
can these values be recognized in your culture? Give specific examples.
·
What
are the sources of these values- parents, media, teachers, religion, etc.?
·
Select
one source and one value and explain the connection between the two.
Because
I assign this for homework and it can be a difficult first exercise, I share
with them a model of my own answers. I
pick Integrity, Adventure, Creativity, Mindfulness, and Balance. In answer to the question about how these
values can be recognized in my culture, I explain that since American culture
celebrates Individualism, I have been taught to value my uniqueness and to
express my true self to others, which is probably where I learned to value
Integrity. Also, Fitness is important in
American culture, so my sense of Adventure, which entails rock climbing and
skiing, partly stems from this cultural emphasis. For the last question which asks me to
connect a value and source, I choose my parents as a source of my Integrity,
and write a few sentences about how my mother always said, “The truth comes out
eventually,” which taught me to be pro-actively honest with others.
When students return the next day with
this prewriting activity completed, I put them into small groups to answer
several discussion questions. I ask them
if they notice any similarities or differences in the values they chose, or
patterns based on age, gender, or culture.
This activity works well in groups where some similarities are found,
but not so well in groups where everyone chose different values. However, a few interesting theories arose
which led to a whole class discussion.
For instance, one young Asian man said, “Both Asian males in our group
have Talent or Skillfulness as one of his values, and in our Asian cultures,
the man provides for the family, so it is important he is good at
something.” Another group noted that the
Asian members of their group had written Courtesy or Respect, and that Respect
is an important cultural value in the East.
In one group, the oldest student mentioned that he chose Love while his
group members did not, and that perhaps because the others were younger, they
didn’t feel the need to meet a partner and create a family yet.
In a group containing Asian and Middle
Eastern students, one student commented that they all had chosen Family; as a
class, we discussed how this value was higher on the hierarchy of values in
Eastern cultures than in Western cultures. When I implemented this activity in
my monocultural classroom in Turkey, 85% of the students chose Family as one of
their top values. In contrast, I gave
them the example of myself. While Family
is important to my American family, it is not as important as Career and Passion. This can be seen by the fact that my family
members are all living in opposite ends of the country due to where our jobs
and interests took us, whereas families from Eastern cultures typically stay in
the same town and maybe even house.
An additional activity is to ask your
students to poll their parents and grandparents for which five values are most
important to them. Ask your students to reflect on the similarities and
differences between the values they selected and those of their parents and
grandparents, and to draw some conclusions based on variables such as age and
gender. In my Composition course, these
activities serve as brainstorming for their essays, and later, they will use
some of this material to write their introduction and conclusion paragraphs.
While students are planning their
essays, I supplement our in-class instruction of essay writing skills with an
online discussion on values. Since our
course is hybrid, that is, 25% of the instruction is online, I can use our
online learning space, CANVAS, to ensure they continue to think critically
about the topic. I post an
excerpt from Pavlina’s website called “Reexamining Your Values,” in which he
writes that we don’t have to continue living the same values throughout our
whole lives (“Living Your Values”).
In
the online discussion, I ask students:
·
Do
you agree with the author that it is possible to consciously change your
values? How can one do it?
·
Would
you ever want to change your values from the ones you were raised on? Why?
·
Have
you had any experiences that caused you to change your values? Describe one.
The level of critical thinking this
article elicited impressed me. No one
disagreed with the author, and they seemed to understand the subtleties of
re-examining one’s values.
Overall, the students unanimously
concurred that “People's values will change by the changing
of circumstance[s]... When you live in a new environment, you need to get
used to it [by] changing your important values,” as one student commented. Many of my students could relate to this concept,
as they are international students who have just experienced a major change in
life circumstances that has naturally caused them to re-examine what is
important to them.
At this point in my Composition course,
I proceed from the prewriting activities to their essay planning. Now that they’ve explored parental and
cultural influences on their values, I remind them of the culminating essay
question: Which three values define you
most? I ask my students to create a
Mind Map for their three top values. I encourage
them to explore these items:
·
their
personal definitions of each value
·
the
sources of their values
·
examples
of how the values express themselves in their lives
·
why
they think these values are important
I
share with them my own Mind Map as a model: 
From
here, we move on to idea development and essay organization, and they continue
with the planning, writing, peer editing, and revising process as they produce
their final essay draft.
In their Final Drafts, students, for
the most part, were able to provide concrete examples to support their
generalizations. For instance, one
student illustrated her Optimism with her daily morning practice of reading
from the book, Daily Life of Positive Questions. She shared a quotation that inspires her to
smile when she gets out of bed every morning.
Another student illustrated Love with, “In my family, since we think
that the chicken legs are the best part of the chicken, my parents always saved
the chicken legs for me when I was a child. Today, I will give the best part to
my little brother who is nine years old. At that moment, the chicken legs
represent my love.” No matter how
trivial the detail seems, when incorporated as a specific supporting example,
it expresses so much about the value’s importance to the writer.
In addition, students incorporated
insightful connections between their personal values and their country’s
historical values. For instance, one
student wrote about Taiwan, “The country I was born [into] has been fighting
alone [to declare] self-independence to the world for years. Inside my heart,
Independence is a symbol to show others your merit in this society. I was
trained by my parents to be an independent child, not to rely on [anything] or
[anyone] and never get beaten by anything.” She then shared a story about how her father
told her she had to buy her ticket back home when she was studying abroad in
Switzerland. Even though he had enough money to help her, he was instilling in
her a sense of independence. “If you [can] buy the cheapest flight to Hong Kong
by yourself, then you may come back,” he told her, which she was able to
do.
I was also pleased with how students incorporated
the prewriting activities and discussions in their introduction and conclusion
paragraphs. When brainstorming hooks to use as their first sentences, we
discussed analogies as a possibility. I
asked students to finish this sentence: “Values are like...” Student responses included, “Values are like
GPS. They guide us when we are lost,”
and “Values are like hair. You can change the style and color when you need a
change.” This prompted a discussion on
whether values can be changed so easily and flippantly.
On the last day of the unit, when I
asked students to reflect in an “Exit Slip,” they expressed that this was a
very interesting, personally useful topic that aids in cross-cultural
understanding and communication, and that they enjoyed the opportunity to share
with each other. Many commented on how
it was helpful to find out what was important to them:
·
“While
I was writing this essay, I thought not only about English, but also about
myself; that helped me to focus on the reason why I came here.”
·
“Now I know myself more than before.”
Several
students noted that being conscious of their values changed the choices they
made in their daily lives, and some expressed that writing about their values
increased their confidence:
·
“I
became more confident in myself, and started to [be] aware [of] more details of
myself in daily life.”
·
[Realizing
I have a lot of values made me] “feel more valuable to the world.”
It was especially heart-warming to read
their comments about the cultural awareness they gained from the unit:
·
“I
realized that many people in Asia have the same values.”
·
“I
learned that people can have similar values even though there are [a] hundred
personalities out there.”
·
“Sometimes
I did not understand someone’s actions or decisions, but now I realize that
perhaps this person was guided by a different set of values.”
·
“If
I [didn’t] write about this topic, it [would be] very hard for me to know how
to live and behave with other people.”
From
these responses, I envisioned a second possible essay assignment, in which
students explore how their new awareness of values promoted better
understanding of themselves and improved their relationships with others. Students’ realizations that others’ actions
are based on different values can give them the understanding and empathy they
need to respect others’ decisions. In my
classroom, I glimpsed a more socially just and harmonious society - one
dominated by self-awareness, critical thinking, and empathy for others.
In a classroom with a different composition than mine, such as a
homogenous group of American high school students, who do not have the opportunity
to interact with students bearing different cultural values, exposing them to
multi-cultural literature may act as a substitute. For instance, two particular essays from NPR’s
“This I Believe” compare the Eastern emphasis on duty to one’s family and
country to the Western emphasis on following one’s dreams and passions. These nicely paired essays are “Do What You
Love” by Tony Hawk, an American man who became a professional skateboarder when
he was 14 years old, and “A Duty to Family, Heritage, and Country” by Ying Ying
Yu, a 13-year old Chinese immigrant girl who chose the career path of a lawyer over
gardener to please her parents and country. Discussion or essay questions may include:
·
Do
you agree with Hawk’s claim that if we do what we love, we may never become
rich or famous, but we will be happy? Why or why not?
·
How
do you feel about Yu’s claim that dreams are illusions?
·
What
is your philosophy of happiness?
Regardless of the demographic make-up
of your classroom, value exploration leads to students making conscious choices
that uphold what’s most important to them, and gives them the tools for
successful cross-cultural communication.
Ultimately, the purpose of the final essay assignment, What three values define you most?, is to
increase awareness of how our values instruct our actions. As a result, students may act with more
intention, both in their interactions with others who may have different
values, as well as during decision-making.
Dr. Hawkes states, “When we actively engage with values we start to
understand their implications for making choices and our attitudes and
responses (VbE: Values Based Education).
As adolescents face difficult
decisions, they can pause to ask themselves, What is most important to me?
Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), a form of mindfulness-based therapy
founded in the 1980s and recently highlighted by the media again, helps
individuals clarify their personal values in order to inform their
actions. ACT founder, Steven C. Hayes,
states, “We’ve shown this in several studies, that if you are more open to your
feelings, more aware, more mindful, and more linked to your values, you will be
more empowered to step up. We’re doing that now with racial minorities, ethnic
minorities, religious minorities and also with a message for those who are in a
majority status who care about these issues” (“Steven Hayes on Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy (ACT)”). Echoing
Hayes, Daniel Siegel, clinical professor and founder of the UCLA Mindful
Awareness Research Center, gives this advice to parents of teenagers: “One way
to support your adolescent… is actually instead of just telling them what not
to do, [is] to get them in touch with what’s positive in their own values” (“Brainstorm:
The Power…”).
While implementing the Values Unit, I
suggest you do the activities alongside your students. Not only will your students be provided with
model assignments and feel a sense of connection to you, but you will feel just
as empowered as your students by reflecting upon your own values. You can start now with Steve Pavlina’s list
of 418 values. He suggests you begin by
checking off the values that resonate with you in order to develop a clearer
sense of what's most important to you in life.
Getting in touch with our values can develop an internal compass to “guide
us – and the spears we throw and fires we make – in ways that are helpful for
ourselves, others, and the wider world in which we live” (Siegel, “Teen Brains,
Danger…”).
Works
Cited
“Contrast
in Values.” Uskudar American Academy, Istanbul, Turkey. 20 August 2012.
Presented at SEV New Teacher
Orientation. Print.
Hawk,
Tony. “Do What You Love.” This I Believe.
NPR. National Public Radio. July 24,
2006. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/
Hawkes,
Neil. VbE: Values Based Education. International Values-based Education
Trust. Web. 22
Sept. 2014. <http://www.valuesbasededucation.com/
Hayes,
Steven. Interview by Tony Rousmaniere. “Steven Hayes on Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy (ACT).” Psychotherapy.net. Psychotherapy.net,
2013.
Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.psychotherapy.net/interview/
Liu,
Yang. “East Meets West:
An Infographic Portrait by Yang Liu.”
Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
Liu,
Yang. “Interview with Artist Yang Liu – East Meets West.” Nee Hao: British
Chinese
and East Asian Culture.
Jan. 7, 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.
Pavlina,
Steve. “List of Values.” Personal Development for Smart People. Web. <http:/
Pavlina,
Steve. “Living Your Values, Part I.” Personal
Development for Smart People.
Web. 21 Sept. 2014. <http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/
Siegel,
Daniel. "Brainstorm: The Power And Purpose Of The Teenage Brain."
Interview
by Diane Rehm. The Diane Rehm Show. WAMU American
University Radio
88.5, Washington, DC, January 6, 2014.
Siegel,
Daniel J. “Teen Brains, Danger, and Dopamine: Mindsight and our Internal
Compass.” TED Weekends. Huffington Post, Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
Yu,
Ying Ying. “A Duty to Family, Heritage and Country.” This I Believe. NPR. National
Public Radio. July 17, 2006. Web. 24
Sept. 2014. <http://www.npr.org/templates/
Author Biography:
Caroline N. Simpson, M.Ed. (University of Montana, 2006), is an international educator who has taught in the U.S., Turkey, and Spain. She currently teaches English for Academic Purposes and ESL at Edmonds Community College, Lynnwood, WA. You may reach her at gobetwee@yahoo.com.
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