An increasingly uncertain and complex world requires agile embracing of opportunities and equally responsive solutions to the challenges provoked. Under such circumstances, it is time to think harder and ask ourselves about what it is to be a human and support students to develop the types of attitudes and values that are inherent to being human and find a sense of purpose with their own moral compass. In doing so, students will not need to rush to a single answer, to an either-or solution, but rather reconcile tensions, dilemmas and trade-offs – for instance, between equity and freedom; autonomy and solidarity; efficiency and democratic processes; ecology and economic logic; diversity and universality; and innovation and continuity – by integrating seemingly contradictory or incompatible goals as aspects of the same reality.

An increasingly uncertain and complex world requires agile embracing of opportunities and equally responsive solutions to challenges. Curriculum that embraces opportunities and challenges provides students with the competencies needed to take responsibility and action to successfully navigate their futures. These competencies include knowledge and skills, as well as the values and attitudes that students can develop to thrive and shape a better future, which they can learn both in school and beyond. This chapter explores the research and data that underpin educational considerations in relation to values and attitudes. Countries/jurisdictions identify – in national and local policy and in educational goals and curriculum content – the values and attitudes they prioritise for student learning. The values and attitudes expressed in these educational instruments align with broad societal values and attitudes increasingly identified by international agencies in their future-focused goals.

This chapter explores how a subset of the OECD 2030 Learning Compass competencies, more specifically, nine constructs (reflection, collaboration and co-operation, learning to learn, respect, responsibility, empathy, self-regulation, persistence, trust) are defined and embedded in curriculum across different subject content areas. Research about the positive academic and social outcomes that are associated with each of these is also summarised.

Students develop values and attitudes within a learning ecosystem – formally, informally and non-formally. They learn through the formal school curriculum, but also through their peers and teachers at school, from siblings and parents at home, and from others with whom they interact in the community. This chapter explores the role of “hidden curriculum” in fostering students’ attitudes and values. It also introduces a curriculum redesign framework, which illustrates how various levels of the curriculum ecosystem interact with each other and impact design, content and implementation. This framework provides a model of how attitudes and values can be introduced and, in turn, influence the development of students’ beliefs, values, dispositions and behaviours. It also looks at data, research findings and shared experiences that can support the development of students’ attitudes and values, as well as personal perspectives on the values and attitudes students and teachers believe a holistic education should provide.

This chapter considers challenges countries/jurisdictions face when embedding values and attitudes into curriculum, as well as strategies to overcome them. It outlines such challenges as how to identify and select values and attitudes to include in curriculum design and how to build consensus on their inclusion; it also considers how to determine what localised curriculum should entail in the context of curriculum autonomy and flexibility, to be enacted through teacher agency, respecting teachers’ own values and beliefs. The chapter outlines the range of strategies adopted by national/jurisdictional authorities to mitigate these impacts and to support introducing values and attitudes meaningfully into teaching and learning activities for a better future. Values and attitudes education needs to reflect the diverse cultural and social environments in which schools exist, so that curriculum designers can make appropriate connections between what is taught in schools and its application to the real world.

This final chapter outlines the lessons learned and some unintended consequences of embedding values education in curriculum design. These include: 1) the acknowledgement that values and attitudes may be indirectly “caught” rather than directly taught; 2) the need to support school leaders and teachers to reconcile tensions among values which may vary among societal norms, school ethos, parental expectations and students’ own beliefs; 3) the need to acknowledge the integrity of subject content as well as the association between subject content and real-life contexts; 4) the importance of awareness of risks and opportunities in messaging through media; 5) the need to make conscious efforts to reflect student voice; 6) the multidimensional considerations to consider when measuring attitudes and values. Research gaps are also suggested to further consolidate the knowledge base on values curriculum.

Australia: Danielle Cavanagh (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)), Patrick Donaldson (Permanent Delegation of Australia to the OECD), Janet Davy (ACARA), Hilary Dixon (ACARA), Meg Holcombe (Department of Education and Training), Mark McAndrew (ACARA), Robert Randall (ACARA)