Values education: what, how, why and what next?

The last decade has seen a lot of work done in Australia to raise the profile of values education. The Values Education Good Practice Schools Project from 2005 to 2008 and the Values in Action Schools Project from 2008 to 2009 both investigated how values education can have positive, constructive influences on matters as wide-ranging as pedagogy, teacher–student relationships, and student wellbeing and social cohesion. The achievements of those national projects have already been documented through several reports; the current article describes some examples of the impact of these projects on students and schools that the authors have observed, then offers some directions and speculations about the future of values education in Australia.