Values Education through Literature in English Classes

Schools are not value-free or value neutral zones of social and educational engagement, but they are about building character as much as equipping students with specific skills, and values education is an explicit goal aimed at promoting care, respect and cooperation.Values education is a way of conceptualising education that places the search for meaning and purpose at the heart of the educational process. It recognises that the recognition, worth and integrity of all involved in the life and work of the school, are central to the creation of a values-based learning community that fosters positive relationships and quality in education. The research aims to explore the values pre-service English language teachers have. The results of the research may add an additional level to the understanding of students’ functioning in class and real life. One hundred and twenty pre-service English language teachers participate in this research. To accomplish the aim, the teacher trainees will be given a semi-structured interview based on Carl Rogers (1969), and Paulo Freire (1998) to test how they address the moral dilemmas in the literary texts they have studied in literature classes.