Values-Driven Educaiton - Part 2

At the 6th Annual Exhibition of Institutions hosted by the National Council for Higher Education ARCC was asked to present a paper on "The Role of Universities in Advancing National Cohesion and Integration." The following is a portion of the paper presented by Jeff Atherstone, the  Director of ARCC, on the role of values in education for advancing national cohesion and integration.

IDENTIFYING VALUES FOR OUR UNIVERSITIES

Values are not simply a list of grand words to be painted across the walls of our offices and student notice boards, such as “honesty” “courage” “tolerance” “service.” This practice is common in many institutions and organizations but is unlikely to produce any results or lasting impact.

Values are important and enduring beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or desirable and what is not. Values exert major influence on the behavior of an individual and serve as broad guidelines in all situations.

Values are the actual character of an institution. Every institution is different with a unique vision and a unique set of leaders, therefore it is important for each institution to identify their own values that they intend to pass on to their students.

When we established our Africa Renewal Christian College in 2007 we did not have a list of values. We had numerous meetings in which we discussed values that were of importance to us but the institutional values were not apparent until our leadership team became familiar with one another and came to a common vision for the Institute.

As we became familiar with one anther we discovered that there were some values that members held to individually but these were unlikely to stick for the Institution as a whole. The values that we affirmed as a leadership team ended up being the values that we shared as a group and were passionate about passing on to others.

To narrow down our values we took a look at our end goal of our vision for the Institute “equipping Christian leaders for the transformation of society.” As a leadership team we asked ourselves, “What type of leader will transform society?” From there we had to break it down even further and ask ourselves, “What needs to be transformed in our society?” From our discussions we felt most passionate that our students should be transforming the nation in relation to corruption, poverty and discrimination based on gender, tribe or social status.

Once we knew what we wanted to transform society, we indentified the values that would bring about the transformation we desired. The value of accountability was identified to address the problems of corruption. The value of stewardship, meaning responsible management of time and resources, was selected to combat poverty. And the value of community was selected to bring about unity among diverse groups of people.

These values became the identity of the Institution and our next task was to establish them firmly within the foundation of the institution.

ESTABLISHING VALUES WITHIN OUR UNIVERSITIES

Once values have been identified an Institution should use them as a road map for determining the course of the school. Identifying values without establishing them is like throwing a seed on a dry ground and then shielding it from sunlight and rain.  This is commonly seen in Institutions that merely write values on their walls but do nothing to integrate them within the school.

I would propose that staff hiring and staff orientation have the greatest impact in establishing the values within our universities. In his 2012 national best seller The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni declared, “If an organization is led by a team that is not behaviorally unified, there is no chance that it will become healthy.” How do we become behaviorally unified? Through common values which direct team member’s behavior and chart the course for the organization.

Most prospective faculty that I interview only seem eager to add to their credentials for their development, but degrees only mark what you know. They cannot define who you are or give an interview panel an accurate picture of what you intend to do with the knowledge you have gained. Values, on the other hand, do define our character and can give others an accurate picture of the course that your life is taking. Your values will also leave the greatest imprint on the people around you.

Recently, I had to excuse myself from an interview panel for personal reasons. It was a difficult decision but I was confident that my fellow staff members on the panel could make the right hire in my absence. How could I be confident? Because their selection of questions which were drafted to assess skill and experience of the candidates was built around the values of the institution. The candidates could not escape the panel without clearly identifying their level of understanding and commitment to our institutional values. But more importantly I knew that every member of the interview panel had embraced and demonstrated the values of the institution in their own lives.

The more we add people to our team with common values the more the values become established in our institution’s culture. We no longer spend staff meetings reminding ourselves of our values but rather our values appear in every discussion and debate as we work together to plot out the future of our school.  We also ensure that within the first 3 months new staff members have been thoroughly oriented to the practical out workings of our values within the school. With the values firmly established within the framework of the school our final task is to then implant them within our students.