Determining the school values in primary and secondary education institutions: A case study

Family and school play a key role in conveying values. Values are not only conveyed through schools, but they also create a school-specific understanding which direct activities in schools. It is possible to have an idea about what schools do through school values, which are created by the beliefs of school staff. The purpose of this study was to determine school values in line with the views of school administrators, teachers and parents. The study was conducted with the multiple case study approach, in accordance with the qualitative research approach. The study group was determined via the maximum variety sampling, which is among purposeful sampling methods. The study was carried out with 35 teachers, 30 administrators and 33 parents from a total of 27 schools with primary, secondary and high school levels, which were chosen from Atakum, Bafra and Ondokuzmayıs districts of the province of Samsun and had different socio-economic levels. The study data were obtained via semi-structured interview forms and were analyzed with the descriptive analysis and content analysis approach. As a result of the study, it was revealed that majority of school administrators usually expressed respect, love, patriotism and benevolence as dominant values; justice as the mostly regarded value; and respect and success as lacking values in their school. It was concluded that teachers usually expressed honesty and responsibility as dominant values; respect and honesty as the mostly regarded values; and ambition to work and happiness as lacking values in their school. It was determined that parents usually expressed respect and industriousness as dominant values; industriousness and respect as the mostly regarded values; and creativity as lacking values in their school. Participants' views revealed the importance of family in actualizing values in school and it was stated that while teachers, as role models were able to actualize values, there were certain factors obstructing the actualization of values, such as negative attitudes of media and family toward values. Keywords: Organizational values, school values, primary education schools, secondary education schools, administrator, teacher, parent