The Role of Animals in the Values Development of Children

In response to Government and community calls to maintain, emphasise, or reintroduce values in schooling, there is a growing literature concerning values education in Australian schools. Despite descriptions of clear aims and expectations within the documents that guide curriculum development, the existing literature exposes a gap, both in studies that identify effective pedagogies for the development of values, and in the availability of instruments to measure values development in children. The burgeoning fields of Humane Education and Human-Animal Studies have recognised the value of animal-based humane education for children’s social and emotional development, and there is an increasing amount of research to suggest that the pedagogy and assessment methods employed through school-based humane education may offer an effective and measurable option for the teaching and assessment of values. This literature review outlines relevant developments in values education in Australian schools that indicate a progressive repositioning of the teaching of values from the format of a discrete educational program, to an integrated curriculum design based on a values-based pedagogy approach. Challenges for the implementation of values-based pedagogy are identified and Humane Education is introduced as a potential option. Finally, it is proposed that findings from the interdisciplinary fields of Values Education, Humane Education, and Human-animal studies support the need to reconceive the contribution of animals to values education and highlight the importance of future research in the area of the role of animals in the development of values and ethical understanding in children.