So who has the values? Challenges for faith-based schools in an era of values pedagogy

The chapter speaks to the emergence of values pedagogy, understood as a holistic approach to education that focusses on the values that should underpin the environment and drive the practice of education. In this sense, values becomes so all-encompassing and determinative of the educational process that it comes to constitute a comprehensive pedagogy, a way of going about the entire business of education. The past decade has seen a significant increase in emphasis on values pedagogy, in this defined sense, variously titled values education, character education and moral education, across the world, including heavily in governmental and broadly non faith-based educational contexts. The potential of such pedagogy to influence educational outcomes, ranging from socio-emotional to academic outcomes, has been demonstrated in ways that supersede most historical evidence. Granted that most of the earlier evidence about the effects of values pedagogy has come from faith-based contexts, the chapter will explore the challenges for faith-based schools in an era that sees much of its traditional distinctive pedagogy being implemented and arguably perfected more widely outside such contexts.