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Organization: Association for Living Values Educational International
The following information may be cited or quoted as long as the source is accurately mentioned and the words are not taken out of context.
Posted: May 08 2010,15:13 If you wrote this report, you will find a button here that you may click
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Postal address of organization/institution

3, Avenue de Miremont, 1211 Genève 21, Switzerland

E-mail address of organization/institution

lve@livingvalues.net;
content@livingvalues.net

Website address of organization/institution

www.livingvalues.net

Telephone of organization/institution


PRIORITIES: All of the organization's domains of culture of peace activity

EDUCATION FOR PEACE
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
HUMAN RIGHTS
UNDERSTANDING, TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY

TOP PRIORITY: The organization's most important culture of peace activity

EDUCATION FOR PEACE

PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKS: What partnerships and networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the global movement for a culture of peace?

The Association for Living Values Education International (“ALIVE”) is a worldwide community of values educators.  As a non-governmental organisation, it takes the form of an international association of independent, locally-run, non-profit organisations committed to promoting values in education.  ALIVE aims to further the objectives of its member organisations (each of which is called an “Associate”) and facilitate their activities in the field of values education while enhancing and maintaining the integrity, identity and standing of the educational approach, philosophy and practice known as Living Values Education (“LVE”).  

While most of the ALIVE Associates are national LVE associations, there are some that are non-governmental organizations in their own right.  This includes Club Avenir des Enfants de Guniee in Guinea Conakry, the National Children’s Council in the Seychelles, Yayasan Karuna Bali in Indonesia, New Generation Vibe in New Zealand, Bond zonder Naam in Belgium and Hand in Hand in the Maldives. Jesuit and Brothers Association for Development coordinate LVE training and events in Egypt.

While ALIVE does not have any international partnerships, some of the national ALIVE Associates and Focal Points for LVE do have country-by-country partnerships. For example, in Vietnam LVE has partnerships with the Hanoi Psychological Association, Plan International, World Vision International and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids & Social Affairs, Drug Rehabilitation Department, among others. Some of the national LVE entities have received cooperation from national UNICEF committees and some from Rotary Clubs. The Braham Kumaris World Spiritual University, which made significant contributions to the establishment and formative dissemination of the LVE endeavor, continues to provide country by country support or partnership when such is desired by both the national LVE and national BKWSU entities.  The Swiss Association for Living Values Education, has received collaboration from UNESCO/BREDA (Regional Office for Education in Africa); with sponsorship from ACCENTUS Charitable Foundation, the Karl Popper Foundation, Service Industriel Geneve (SIG), Jersey (UK) Rotary Club, West African Cement (Togo) along with the cooperation of other organizations and individuals when doing a several year project with countries in West and Central Africa. The ALIVE Associate in Paraguay has an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Colegio Aula Viva. There are many organizations and individuals that cooperate in this global values education endeavor. Each national LVE entity has the right to form its own partnerships as long as it adheres to the values promoted by ALIVE and set forth in its articles of association and code of conduct.

ACTIONS: What activities have been undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence during the ten years of the Decade? If you already made a report in 2005, your information from 2005 will be included in the 2010 report.

The Association for Living Values Education International (ALIVE) has seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in the last half of this decade.  From 2005 to 2010, we have:
1. further defined the Living Values Education Approach;
2. developed more Living Values Education (LVE) educational resource materials;
3. provided LVE professional development workshops, seminars and courses to a greater number of educators in schools, organizations and agencies dealing with young people in both formal and informal settings, and to a greater number of parents and communities, through ALIVE Associates and Focal Points for Living Values Education in 65 countries around the world; and
4. broadened the scope of LVE to communities in several countries.

Information about each one of the above items is detailed below.

1.  The Living Values Education Approach
The following statement of vision and core principles was elaborated, primarily from mid-2005 to mid-2006, on the basis of extensive consultations with Living Values Education practitioners around the world.

The Vision
Living Values Education is a way of conceptualizing education that promotes the development of values-based learning communities and places the search for meaning and purpose at the heart of education.  LVE emphasizes the worth and integrity of each person involved in the provision of education, in the home, school and community.  In fostering quality education, LVE supports the overall development of the individual and a culture of positive values in each society and throughout the world, believing that education is a purposeful activity designed to help humanity flourish.

To see the entire statement, please go to: http://www.livingvalues.net/news/pdf/The_LVE_Approach_2008.pdf

2.  More LVE Educational Resource Materials
In pursuing its mission and implementing its core principles, the Association for Living Values Education International and its Associates and Focal Points provide a range of educational resource materials.

Prior to 2005:  Classroom teaching material and other educational resources, in particular an award-winning series of five resource books containing practical values activities and a range of methods are offered for use to educators, facilitators, parents and caregivers to help children and young adults to explore and develop twelve widely-shared human values (Living Values Activities for Children Ages 3-7, Living Values Activities for Children Ages 8-14, Living Values Activities for Young Adults, Living Values Parent Groups: A Facilitator Guide and LVEP Educator Training Guide).  There are also resource books for children in difficult circumstances (street children), children affected by earthquakes and children affected by war.  The approach and lesson content are experiential, participatory and flexible, allowing – and encouraging – the materials to be adapted and supplemented according to varying cultural, social and other circumstances.  

Actions in the form of continued implementation since 2005:  Through these materials, educators, parents and facilitators around the world have continued to promote a culture of peace in schools and education settings in both formal and informal settings, with parents and families through parent groups, and with children in difficult circumstances (street children).  It has been observed that the more years the staff of a whole school is implementing LVE, the greater the atmosphere of peace, respect and care, and the more they naturally use a language of values to solve any conflicts in a mutually beneficial way.  Further information about this is provided in point 5 below.

From 2005 to 2010:
Living Values Activities for Drug Rehabilitation: This manual was developed in 2005. It is being used in drug rehabilitation clinics in Vietnam and Brazil and has been used in Estonia in prisons.  For further information, please see: http://www.livingvalues.net/LVADR.html.

Living Values Activities for Young Offenders: This manual was developed in 2008. This was successfully piloted in Singapore.  For further information, please see: http://www.livingvalues.net/LVAYO.html.

Songs:  In 2009, 20 songs about peace and other values for children from three- to seven-years old were made available for free download on ALIVE’s website.

LVE Home Study Course: LVE Focal Points in New Zealand and Australia have developed and are piloting a based on Living Values Activities for Young Adults.  This is being made available to adults in an effort to raise awareness about the effect of values in life, and to encourage adults to use values in their own inner work, in their relationships and in the workplace.  When it is complete it will be made available to all ALIVE Associates and LVE Focal Points.

Television shows: Another educational resource that was developed during this period was a series of 52 LVE television shows in Vietnam.  In these programmes, people on the street are asked questions about a value and then six teens do an LVE activity on the show.  This programme is very popular in Vietnam and is currently running six times a week on two different major channels.  Teens and adults write in to share how the programme has changed their life in a positive way, allowing them to have more understanding, peace, respect or compassion.

Short films and ads: Several other ALIVE Associates or Focal Points for LVE have developed short films and even advertisements promoting living our values. For example, in the Seychelles, the ALIVE Associate is the National Children’s Council. They have developed ads promoting awareness about the importance of adults modeling values.  In Zimbabwe, a private girls’ high school developed a film that beautifully depicts the grace, peace and intelligence of hundreds of young women involved in LVE.

Volunteer City Programme: In Israel, the ALIVE Associate has worked with the Informal Education Department within the Ministry of Education to develop a project to implement values in communities.  Both LVE and Ministry materials are being used.  The first “Volunteer City” training was carried out in 2007 very successfully; the materials were finalized in early 2010 in preparation for wider dissemination.

3. LVE Professional Development Workshops, Seminars and Courses
Professional development workshops, seminars and courses for teachers and others involved in the provision of education have been provided to a greater number of educators in schools, organizations and agencies dealing with young people in both formal and informal settings through ALIVE Associates and Focal Points for Living Values Education in 65 countries around the world.  

For example, in Brazil, the ALIVE Associate, Instituto Vivendo Valores, has provided training to thousands of teachers, including street educators who work with children in difficult circumstances.  These educators have facilitated the exploration and development of values with more than 500,000 young people in normal schools and 75,000 street children.  

In West and Central Africa, from 2003 to 2008, the Swiss Association for Living Values Education, in collaboration with UNESCO/BREDA (Regional Office for Education in Africa); with generous sponsorship from ACCENTUS Charitable Foundation, the Karl Popper Foundation, Service Industriel Geneve (SIG), Jersey (UK) Rotary Club, West African Cement (Togo); and with the cooperation of other organizations and individuals, has succeeded in an endeavor to provide basic values education training for educators and develop teams of trainers in several countries.  School teachers and educators that serve children in difficult circumstances were trained in the Living Values Education (LVE) approach and immediately began implementing LVE in their workplaces. This began in Senegal in 2003 with a training workshop for educators of street children and early childhood education, and later expanding to Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon and The Gambia.

In Vietnam, several thousand educators have been trained from 2005 to 2010.  Some of these educators work in drug rehabilitation clinics, others with street children (children in difficult circumstances), others with parents, in schools and with universities.  In Vietnam, PLAN and World Vision have developed partnerships with the LVE Focal Point and are actively training educators.  It has been noted in Vietnam that social skills development is not sufficient as often the students develop arrogance about their abilities.  The educators have found that teaching values eliminates this problem, while promoting the values of peace and respect for all.

In Spain, the ALIVE Associate there has been working with Fundación Cultura de Paz.  From 2002 through 2009 they have carried out seminars with professionals and families, sensitizing them to the Culture of Peace.  Two annual meetings have been held with teams of professionals in Spain in the cities of Bilbao, Barcelona, Valencia, Tenerife, Sevilla, Alicante.

All but one of the ALIVE Associates or Focal Points for LVE in 65 countries around the world has carried out LVE workshops or seminars with educators.  In many countries, LVE is implemented mostly with educators in schools and day-care centres.  In some countries, Associates or Focal Points also facilitate a LVE process with parents in parent groups.  In other countries, they also implement it in centres for street children, health centres, universities, youth camps, hospitals, prisons and drug rehabilitation clinics.  For further details, please see individual Country Reports at www.livingvalues.net.

4. Broadened the Scope of LVE to Communities
As mentioned in section 2 above, some of the new LVE educational resource developments are bringing LVE to communities, specifically, the Home Study Course in New Zealand and Australia, the Volunteer Cities project in Israel and the television programmes in Vietnam.  The awareness of values, including the values of peace, respect, honest and tolerance, is usually coupled with information about psycho-social skills to promote better intra- and interpersonal functioning.

However, as LVE helps young people live their values both inside and outside the classroom, we have found that values awareness automatically increases in families and communities.  This also occurs as LVE educators do activities outside traditional settings.  For example, in South Africa an LVE educator does LVE activities with children in a hospital while educators in Brazil have held LVE parades.

The Instituto Vivendo Valores in Brazil is just about to implement a large-scale LVE project in one of the most challenging neighbourhoods of Sao Paulo with thousands of children and adults.  This will be a two-year project of implementation and research with both LVE Formal Education and LVE for At-Risk Youth.  The project will take place in Jardim Angela, in Sao Paulo, at both local schools and social institutes, particularly with the Santos Martires Society.  It is hoped that this project will dramatically reduce the culture of violence in this neighbourhood.

PROGRESS: Has your organization seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of action and in your constituency during the second half of the Decade?

While our world continues to need considerable progress toward a culture of peace, yes,  we have seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in the last half of this decade.  

Below we have noted just a few of the positive results of LVE and values education research.  There are tens of thousands of LVE educators around the world in 65 countries who help young people, educators, parents and communities grow toward their potential.

Living Values Educators continue to report an increase in respect, caring, cooperation, motivation and the ability to solve peer conflicts on the part of the young people.  Aggressive behaviour is seen to decline as positive social skills and respect increase.  Interviews with educators implementing Living Values Education reveal that over time there is a change in how the children, youth and adults involved perceive and deal with challenges.  As they learn to dialogue and resolve new situations in an open atmosphere of respect and caring, their comprehension and acceptance of differences grows together with their ability to create positive outcomes; they become creators of peace.  Educators assume more direct responsibility and create safe, caring, values-based environments for quality learning and quality education.

Specific examples:
Living Values Activities for Drug Rehabilitation (LVADR) is being used in 25% of the government's drug rehabilitation centres in Vietnam.  In March 2008, the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour disclosed results about the programme's implementation, reporting that while there were various other programmes used in the centres they have found LVADR produces the most positive results.

In Bermuda, the Ministry of Education and Development reported that the staff of three primary schools had begun to make the connections between role-modelling for students as they practised non-confrontational approaches.  Each school recorded an 80 percent drop in student office referrals within the first year of implementing LVE.  

Dr. Walters Samah, Focal Point for LVE for Cameroon reported, “Many have expressed how positively the training has improved their teaching. For me, it's become an integral part of my daily teaching, both in secondary schools and in higher education. I apply LVE methodology, practices and use the cards very often, especially in the two courses I handle: Citizenship & Moral Instruction, and Human Rights & Gender. The students respond well and already I have seen a big difference in their behaviour, their interest in their studies, and in their results.”

The LVE programme for Street Children considerably reduces violence and increases self-confidence, self protective skills and values-based behaviour.  Educators trained in LVE have served over 75,000 street children.  

In Paraguay, results for 3243 students, from 4- to 22-years of age, who were engaged in LVE are summarized from teacher ratings.  Despite being from many different schools with a variance in adherence to the LVE Model, the educators rated 86% to 100% of the students as having improved somewhat or considerably in each of the following:  
Self-confidence: 100%
Respect for adults: 96%
Respect for peers: 89%
Cooperation: 100%
Honesty: 89%
Responsibility: 87%
Ability to concentrate: 86%
Relating socially: 92%
Interest in school/motivation: 94%

Please see the www.livingvalues.net website for more specific results.

The following is an excerpt from a report by Dr. Neil Hawkes:  
In Australia, a number of studies have been conducted that show the positive effects of values education on school relationships, ambience, student well-being and improved academic diligence.  Living Values Education is acknowledged as being one of the inspirational forces behind these studies (Lovat et al., 2009, p. 18).  Professor Terry Lovat and his colleagues at Newcastle University in Australia have been monitoring and researching the effects of the Australian Government’s Values Education Initiative.  The University published its final report for the Australian Government, which looks at the evidence concerning the impact of introducing and developing Values Education in schools (Lovat, 2009).  

The research describes how values-based schools give increasing curriculum and teaching emphasis to Values Education.  As a consequence, students become more academically diligent, the school assumes a calmer, more peaceful ambience, better student-teacher relationships are forged, student and teacher well-being improves and parents are more engaged with the school – all claims made for LVE too!

Explicit teaching of values provides a common ethical language for talking about interpersonal behaviour.  It also provides a mechanism for self-regulated behaviour.  An important outcome is a more settled school which enhances quality teaching and enables teachers to raise expectations for student performance.

The effective implementation of Values Education was characterized by a number of common elements:
• Values Education was regarded as a school’s “core business”, given equal status with other areas and embedded in policies and student welfare practices;
• A “common language” was developed among staff, students and families to describe values and the school’s expectations of student behaviour;
• Staff endeavoured to “model” and demonstrate the values in everyday interactions with students;
• Values were scaffolded by supportive school-wide practices including teacher facilitation of student reflection and self-regulation of behaviour;
• Values were taught in an explicit way in and out of the classroom and through other media (e.g. assemblies, sport and cooperative games, drama and songs);
• Values education was allied to “real world learning” involving deep personal learning and imbued both planned and unplanned learning opportunities;
• Values education was reinforced through positive visual media as well as consistent, verbal encouragement and acknowledgement;
• Values education was allied to expressed high standards for overall participation, performance and achievement; and
• Values education was optimally introduced under the guidance of the principal and/or a team of committed staff.

The research also revealed that Values Education had an impact in the following areas:
  a. Student academic diligence was enhanced.  Students:
• showed increased attentiveness in class and a greater capacity to work independently;
• assumed more responsibility for their own learning;
• asked questions and worked together more cooperatively;
• took greater care and effort in their schoolwork; and
• took more pride in their efforts.

  b. The improvements in School ambience included:
• conflict among students decreased or was managed more constructively;
• students demonstrated greater empathy, honesty and integrity;
• more tolerant and cooperative student interactions;
• safer and more harmonious classrooms and playgrounds;
• greater kindness and tolerance among students;
• students actively seeking to include peers without friends;
• students taking greater responsibility with school equipment and routine tasks; and
• students treating the school buildings and grounds “with respect”.

  c) The impact on student-teacher relationships was evidenced by:
• “more trusting” relationships between staff and students;
• the establishment of more “democratic” classrooms;
• teachers giving students more “power” by allowing them choices in learning activities;
• teachers being more conscious of scaffolding students to manage their own behaviour or resolve conflict with others;
• teachers seeking opportunities to acknowledge and reinforce appropriate behaviour;
• teachers “listening” to students and responding to their concerns and opinions;
• students perceiving that teachers treat them fairly;
• students behaving “more respectfully” towards teachers; and
• students showing greater politeness and courtesy to teachers.

  d) The positive impacts on student and teacher wellbeing included:
• students feeling a greater sense of connectedness and belonging;
• students gaining a greater capacity for self-reflection and self-appraisal;
• students developing a greater capacity for regulating their own and their peers’ behaviour;
• teachers receiving collegial support and strong leadership;
• teachers obtaining confidence and knowledge through opportunities for professional development and through staff collaboration;
• teachers re-examining their practices and role; and
• the fostering of relational trust among staff and between teachers and families.

Other research evidence:  
When Values Education was explicit, a common language was established among students, staff and families.  This not only led to greater understanding of the targeted values but also provided a positive focus for redirecting children’s inappropriate behaviour.  Teachers perceived that explicitly teaching values and developing empathy in students resulted in more responsible, focused and cooperative classrooms and equipped students to strive for better learning and social outcomes.  When values are explicitly endorsed, acknowledged and “valued” within a school culture, it becomes incumbent on schools to ensure that staff, as well as students, are both benefactors and recipients in respectful and caring interactions.  The common focus draws teachers together to create a collaborative and cohesive school community which supports teachers in doing their job more effectively.  This has important ramifications for students’ academic progress and well-being.

Many thanks to Newcastle University’s research programme which has produced such excellent evidence on the impact of Values Education.

Reference
Lovat, T., Toomey, R., Dally, K. & Clement, N. (2009).  Project to test and measure the impact of values education on student effects and school ambience.  Final Report for the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) by The University of Newcastle.  Canberra: DEEWR.  Available at:
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/Project_to_Test_and_Measure_the_Impact_of_Values_Education.pdf

OBSTACLES: Has your organization faced any obstacles to implementing the culture of peace and nonviolence? If so, what were they?

There are time and financial constraints, especially as most LVE trainers volunteer their time.

PLANS: What new engagements are planned by your organization in the short, medium and long term to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence?


GLOBAL MOVEMENT: How do you think the culture of peace and nonviolence could be strengthened and supported at the world level??

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Organization: Association for Living Values Educational International

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