Value in Shadows: A contribution to Values Education in our times

Abstract

This chapter explores the values-laden nature of pedagogy and practice in educational systems in the international context. Recognition of such values are often denied in the process of objectification of knowledge, as is prevalent in the mathematical sciences (see Bishop, 2000, 2001; Bishop, Gunstone, Clarke, & Corrigan, 2006; Bishop, 2007, 2008), but also through the "New Knowledge Economy" supported by standards and evidence-based approaches to education that have become increasingly dominant on an international scale. Rather than denying the values-laden nature of contemporary education thereby creating unattended-to shadows and ghosts in the Demidean (1994) sense, acknowledgement and embrace is advocated. This enables a redirection of the purpose of educational practice towards democratic values that, with critical embrace, would better prepare youth for the glocal conditions they face in a globalized world that is increasingly under ecological, political and economic stress.