Becoming better people: Children's perceptions of how a school's garden program has impacted their actualisation of values

Abstract

Education is perceived, among other things, to be a character-building enterprise. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, a renewed emphasis on character development through values education has been on the agendas of Australian schools. Many schools now offer programs designed to inculcate values into the lives of students. Although values literacy is widespread in schools, there is less evidence to demonstrate that values actualisation, that is, making positive values the basis of behaviour at school and in life, has taken root. This case study in one primary school used focus groups to gather children’s perceptions of how they actualised values in the context of a school garden program. The garden program’s organisational elements were found to positively impact the actualisation of intrapersonal and interpersonal values.