Date of Degree

12-2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Program

Education

Advisor

Sharon Herbers

Advisor

David Fike

Advisor

Daniel Dominguez

Advisor

James Simpson

Abstract

Values education is a subject that may be neglected in some educational settings. An absence of values education may lead to dysfunction in society. Scholars have only recently become interested in the importance of values education (Koh, 2012). Although the National Education Policy in Bangladesh has long emphasized the inculcation of values in educational institutions (Ministry of Education, 1974, 2010), recent research has revealed the inadequate implementation and practice of values education (UNICEF Bangladesh, 2009). The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study was to understand the high school graduates' perspectives regarding values education and the values they learned while attending a Catholic Church-sponsored school in Bangladesh. The research protocol comprised semistructured, open-ended interviews and a focus group discussion with 12 participants. The participants were purposefully selected and were interviewed in sessions lasting 40-75 minutes. Data was analyzed using an inductive and constant comparative process. Analysis revealed seven values education related principal themes that were relevant to the study’s purpose and research questions. The values education related themes were: (1) learning specific values through relationships, (2) learning values through school culture, (3) long-term impacts of school experiences, (4) benefits of co-curricular activities, (5) necessity of values education, (6) school's duties in implementing values education, and (7) acquired values that conflict with societal norms. In addition, analysis also provided information about the participants’ meaningful memories and experiences during their 8 years of schooling that connected to learning values in school. Five recommendations were proposed for further research to gain an in-depth knowledge of current practices in values education: (1) duplication of qualitative research with teachers as participants, (2) a qualitative research with female or mixed participants, (3) a similar qualitative research with participants of general schools, (4) a qualitative study with current students as participants to understand the current practices, and (5) a quantitative study to investigate the correlation between learning values and co-curricular activities and school programs. Three recommendations were proposed for the institution that the participants were associated with: (1) the findings of this study should be shared with faculty and administration, (2) the school should assess and explore ways to enhance cultivating values and what might be done differently in cultivating values, and (3) efforts should be made to emphasize integrating values education into the curriculum for inculcating values in school.

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