Exploring personal values in teaching

University teachers may be governed or guided by codes of conduct and ethics, value statements, a set of principles for ethical behaviour in teaching, perhaps even by-laws. But do these codes and statements and by-laws accurately describe the personal values that each teacher brings to his or her teaching? Does each teacher feel a personal ownership of these prescribed values?

In exploring personal values in teaching, a university teacher might develop a personal philosophy of teaching and learning. In the development of this statement, the enquiring university teacher may ask what do I teach, how do I teach and perhaps most importantly, why do I teach? Yet answering these questions might not get at the values that underpin their teaching.

In the exploration of a personal set of values in teaching, we might be guided by Parker Palmer (1999) who goes beyond the 'what', 'how' and 'why' questions and asks the 'who' question.

Who is the self that teaches? How does the quality of my selfhood form - or deform - the way I relate to my students, my subjects, my colleagues, my world? How can educational institutions sustain and deepen the selfhood from which good teaching comes? (p. 4)

So how does a teacher begin to explore personal values in teaching? Certainly the codes and statements and by-laws are a good starting point but perhaps it is the 'who' question that can only be addressed by each individual university teacher. Rowland (2000) suggests that

writing, particularly if we can escape from some of the narrower notions of 'academic' writing, can provide a means for exploring and articulating emotions and values with a view to bringing our practice of teaching into closer alignment with those values (p. 100).

A commitment to regular journal writing may stimulate our thinking about issues, questions and problems that arise in academic life that will help define and articulate those emotions and values in our teaching. Reflection on the interaction and discussions with our colleagues and our students may help in the exploration of our personal values.

Perhaps what is most important to remember when exploring our personal values in teaching is that the values we espouse will be evident to our students and may influence them in the development of their own values.

• Palmer, P. J. (1999). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Rowland, S. (2000). The enquiring university teacher. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.