9. INFORMES
9.3 CLASES DE INFORMES
The previous section explored how students demonstrated a growth in awareness of their personal value positions, frequently informed by their faith; even if their value positions were largely unchanged, their ability to articulate and ‘work with’ them had developed. They also frequently framed their personal values in relation to their work with young people.
By her third interview, Cate talked about holding the same values but that ‘some of them
have deepened’, suggesting a greater commitment to them, perhaps as a result of the work
she had done to explore and evaluate them. Similarly, Dani (Interview 3) talked about holding the same personal values, ‘but I think I say it ‘how it is’ more now with … reflection and
(saying it ‘how it is’), but that she spoke more thoughtfully and with greater reflection about them.
As students sought to work with their own values, making choices about the values they held and holding those chosen values more deeply, the idea of ‘core values’ emerged in the third interviews, values of ‘importance’, which students had ‘worked on’ or ‘developed’. Tom referred to ‘my awareness of my core values’ (Interview 3) and Samuel, after discussing his commitment to equality in all three interviews, commented: ‘I think my main core value
which I have developed on is equality,’ (Interview 3). Cate talked about seeing particular
values as more important, and seeking to develop them, giving ‘grace’ as an example, ‘not
only that I accept in my life that God has got grace in my life, but that I have grace with young people’ (Interview 3).
As students became more aware and certain of their own values, they became more aware of others’ values and of ‘difference’ where they had expected similarity. Laura spoke of her frustration on realising young people did not share her values: ‘It has been a real challenge
just to understand the fact that actually young people hold different values to me …… and that can be, or can feel frustrating,’ (Interview 3); a realisation Tom also echoed: ‘…when I first came here …. I expected everyone to have very similar values to myself,’ (Interview 2).
However, the wider context of Tom’s observation here is instructive; that his value positions had not changed but he worked with them differently in relation to young people.
I’d definitely say that my values for myself haven’t changed […] So how has it changed and developed? I think I’m not as quick to put my values on other people, […] when I first came here […] I expected everyone to have very similar values to myself and as that’s gone along I’ve realised that people have very different values and very different sort of outlooks […] so I don’t want to impose my values but I want people to be able to sort of meet me halfway sort of often with their values. Tom, Interview 2
One might expect that as students became more aware of and worked with their values – evaluating them, making judgements about which values to hold as ‘core’ values, understanding them more, and becoming more deeply committed to these core values – they would become less open to others’ values, which they had began to realise were not always the same as theirs. However, the opposite was true; as they thought more about their own values and became increasingly aware of others’ values and ‘difference’, they sought to ensure their own values did not become a barrier to the young people they were working
with and became more open to others. Samuel identified this in his comment on his own values:
Personal values? To be honest, I still believe that they’re the same, but I think I’m a lot more … I feel a lot more exposed to other people’s values….. yes, a lot more [open]. Samuel, Interview 2
Dani recognised the need to hold more loosely to some of her values and aims for work:
So my personal values I think, crikey, you have to, yeah, incorporate in your youth work while using the [organisation’s] values but sometimes, yeah, don’t hold on too closely to them, because they do differ from different values. Dani, Interview 2
Jamie demonstrated his greater openness and willingness to listen to others’ views, describing a conversation with a friend, which had led him to think more critically about a doctrinal position he had held strongly in his first interview. He said: ‘I don’t think I would be
as-, like I think I said there that I was committed to,- believers baptism. I wouldn’t say I am anymore, or not as committed’. Jamie had previously identified both ‘relationship’ and
‘community’ as two values of importance to him, and this hierarchy of values perhaps enabled him to hold more loosely to a more specific principle. Similarly, Tom’s thinking about how he drew on his personal values developed significantly during the research process. In interview 2, his reflection on the personal values he spoke about in his first interview answer elicited this response:
That [answer] was very much a product of the time ……. it’s very interesting because although there is a lot of similarities to what I believe now or what I think value is now, I do believe that my idea now is a lot more fluid than it probably was then. So I’m more of the opinion that my values can be changed and they’re not always going to be set … that actually challenging has definitely sort of made my views sort of … a lot more malleable and there’s a lot more of a grey area than there was before, not everything’s so black and white ….. my value is still for me personally … [but] my throwing of that on other people now is not so much … if you see, I’m not as quick to judge as I would have been. Tom, Interview 2
Tom had developed this position further by the third interview:
I think my awareness of my core values has probably become … all the sort of sub- things, like how I feel about … abortion, for example, or debt or something like that, … all these different values have changed dependent on the scenario, but … now I think
I’ve been focusing mainly on narrowing it down to … ‘love God and love others’ and then …. as long as I keep that, that is one of my key values and that is one of my core values …. and obviously it’s how I interpret that on the situation. So, I’ve got that in the back of my mind, that’s where everything needs to be rooted to … that’s the thing. Tom, Interview 3
Tom’s comment suggests he thought in ‘categories’ and ‘sub-categories’ of values – high order, core values which to him were applicable in any situation, which rooted his practice and allowed some level of congruence between his personal values and the demands of professional work: and lower order principles, views and opinions, which he still chose to live out himself, but which he was able to hold more loosely to, view as context- dependent, and if necessary lay aside, in relation to his youth work, in order to draw on his ‘core values’. Tom mentioned in both later interviews his love of the word paradox – ‘it’s been about self-
discovery and finding that I’m okay with the paradox’ – and here he demonstrated an
apparent paradox; his ability to hold some personal values more deeply in relation to his work whilst, at the same time, holding other personal values much more loosely. He also demonstrated a key professional competence: being able to work with and in uncertainty, which both Schön (1987) and Fook, Ryan and Hawkins (2000:187-189) regard as a key feature of expert practice.