Journal of Educare

Value Education, Secondary Students, English Textbooks.

Value education is internationally known by various names such as moral education, ethics education, and character education. Values play a crucial role in human life as they regulate and guide behaviour and actions in day-to-day affairs. While the family is considered the prime agency for inculcating values, schools bear a greater responsibility to provide value education, as they play a significant role in delivering quality education to learners (Lickona, 1992). The early childhood and primary stages of education are ideal for laying the foundation of a child's personality. The secondary stage is also crucial as students develop their attitudes towards moral and ethical issues. At the secondary stage, there is no separate curriculum for value education; instead, values are integrated into the curricula of different subjects. Consequently, the curriculum serves as an important source of value education (Kohlberg, 1981). Languages and literature are effective means of communication and provide a powerful way to impart value education at the secondary level. Therefore, this paper aims to highlight, through the Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) approach, the types of values conveyed by the prose and poetry included in the English textbooks for secondary students in schools affiliated with the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.