The Value of Forgiveness in the Eyes of High-School Teachers: Do They Perceive it as Related yo Testing and Grading Students?
Article Sidebar
Published:
Aug 16, 2021
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Keywords:
forgiveness in education, standardized tests
Main Article Content
Abstract
While forgiveness is considered an important value in life, the assessment of students through standardized tests is an unforgiving system within the educational setting. How do teachers perceive the connection between testing and forgiveness? The purpose of this study was to investigate this question. Thirty-one high school teachers were asked to respond to four questions, after being presented with a specific definition of forgiveness, suggesting that forgiveness means allowing people, and students, to make mistakes without judgment until they start doing things right. Teachers’ responses were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The content analysis yielded ten categories, some of which indicate that there is a tension between a) teachers’ feelings toward their students and their wish to support and help them, and b) the formal top-down demands of the educational system. Teachers also pointed to the importance of there being limits to forgiving students’ wrongdoing.
Article Details
Issue
Section
Articles
References
Abeles, R., & Rubenstein, G. (2015) Beyond measure: Rescuing an overscheduled, overtested, underestimated generation. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Bailey, R. (Ed.) (2000). Teaching values and citizenship across the curriculum (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Bauer, J., Stamm, A., Virnich, K., Wissing, K., Udo Müller, U., Wirsching, M., & Schaarschmidt, U. (2006). Correlation between burnout syndrome and psychological and psychosomatic symptoms among teachers. International Arch Occupational and Environment Health, 79, 199–204. DOI 10.1007/s00420-005-0050-y.
Berliner, D. (2011). Rational responses to high stakes testing: The case of curriculum narrowing and the harm that follows. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(3), 287-302.
Berliner, D. (2015). The many facets of PISA. Teacher College Record, 117(1), 1–20.
Carr, D. (2006). Professional and personal values and virtues in teaching. Oxford Review of Education, 32(2), 171–183.
Carr, D. (2009). Virtue, mixed emotions and moral ambivalence. Philosophy, 84(327), 31–46. Retrieved January 1, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20533169.
Cornish, F., Gillespie, A., & Zittoun, T. (2014). Collaborative analysis of qualitative data. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 79-93). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, Ltd.
Denham, S., Neal, K., Wilson, B., Pickering, S., & Boyatzis, C. (2005.) Emotional development and forgiveness in children: Emerging evidence. In E. L. Worthington, Jr (Ed.), Handbook of forgiveness (pp. 127–142). New York: Brunner–Routledge.
Dieter-Meyer, H. (2014). The OECD as pivot of the emerging global education accountability regime: How accountable are the accountants? Teacher College Record, 116(9), 1–20.
Dolev, N., & Leshem, S. (2017). Developing emotional intelligence competence among teachers. Teacher Development, 21(1), 21–39.
Dollinger, S. J. (2011). “Standardized minds” or individuality? Admissions tests and creativity revisited. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 5(4), 329–341. https://doi.org/10. 1037/a0023659
Enright, R., & Fitzgibbons, R. P. (2015). Forgiveness education. In Forgiveness Therapy: An empirical guide for resolving anger and restoring hope (pp. 233–250). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Etherington, M. (2013). Values education: Why the teaching of values in schools is necessary, but not sufficient. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 22(2), 189–210. DOI: 10.1080/10656219.2013.808973
Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burnout. Journal of Social Issues, 30(1), 159–165.
Gilar-Corbi, R., Pozo-Rico, T., Pertegal-Felices, M., et al. (2018) Emotional intelligence training intervention among trainee teachers: A quasi-experimental study. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica. 31, 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-018-0112-1.
Golonka, K., & Marek, T. (2015). Job burnout and engagement among teachers: Worklife areas and personality traits as predictors of relationships with work. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 28(1), 102–119.
Halstead, M., & Taylor, M. (1996). Values in education and education in values. London–Washington: The Falmer Press.
Hargreaves, A. (2020). Large-scale assessments and their effects: The case of mid-stakes tests in Ontario. Journal of Educational Change, 21, 393–420.
Heckman, J., Humphries, E., & Kauts, T. (Eds.) (2014). The myth of achievement tests: The GED and the role of character in American life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Johnson, D., Johnson, B., Farenga, S., & Ness, D. (2008). Stop high-stakes testing: An appeal to America’s conscience. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Jones, B. (2007). The unintended outcomes of high-stakes testing. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 23(2), 65–86.
Kowal, S., & O’Connel, D. (2014). Transcriptions as a crucial step of data analysis. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 64–79). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, Ltd.
Lickona, T. (1991) Educating for character: How our schools can teach respect and responsibility. New York: Bantam Books.
Lin, W.-N., Enright, R., & Klatt, J. (2011). Forgiveness as character education for children and adolescents. Journal of Moral Education, 40(2), 237–253.
Lovat, T., Clement, N., Dally, K., & Toomey, R. (2011). The impact of values education on school ambience and academic diligence. International Journal of Educational Research, 50(3), 166–170.
Lovat, T., Toomey, R., Dally, K., & Clement, N. (2009). Project to test and measure the impact of values education on student effects and school ambience. Report for the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Work place relations. (DEEWR) by The University of Newcastle, Australia. Canberra: DEEWR.
Luchies, L., Finkel, E., McNulty, J., & Kumashiro, M. (2010). The doormat effect: When forgiving erodes self-respect and self-concept clarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 734–749.
Madaus, G., & Russell, M. (2017). Paradoxes of high-stakes testing. Journal of Education, 190(1–2), 21–30. DOI:10.1177/0022057410190001-205
Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W., & Leiter, M. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397.
Maxwell, J. (2010). Using numbers in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(6), 475–482.
McCullough, M. E., Rachal, K. C., Sandage, S. J., Worthington, E. L., Jr., Brown, S. W., & Hight, T. L. (1998). Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships: II. Theoretical elaboration and measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(6), 1586–1603. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.6.1586.
McNulty, J. (2011). The dark side of forgiveness: The tendency to forgive predicts continued psychological and physical aggression in marriage. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37 (6), 770–783. DOI: 10.1177/0146167211407077.
McNulty, J. (2020) Highlighting the dark side of forgiveness and the need for a contextual approach. In E. Worthington, Jr., & N. Wade (Eds.), Handbook of forgiveness (2nd ed.) (pp. 33–42). New York: Routledge.
Moreno, A. J., Maloney, V. R., & Brown, K. L. (2010). The case against testing young children to evaluate teacher effectiveness: A position statement from the Marsico Institute for Early Learning and Literacy. Issue Brief, No. 4, University of Denver.
Nichols, S., Berliner, D., & Noddings, N. (2007). Collateral damage: How high-stakes testing corrupts America’s schools. Boston: Harvard Education Press.
Noddings, N. (2005). ‘Caring in education’. The Encyclopedia of Pedagogy and Informal Education. Retrieved December 29, 2020 from: https://infed.org/mobi/caring-in-education/
Osbeck, C., Franck, O., Lilja, A., & Sporre, K. (2018). Possible competences to be aimed at in ethics education: Ethical competences highlighted in educational research journals. Journal of Beliefs & Values, 39(2), 195–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2018.1450807.
Ravitch, D. (2016). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. New York: Basic Books.
Robinson, K. (2018). Creative schools: The grassroots revolution that’s transforming education. New York: Penguin Books.
Rothstein, R. (2008). The corruption of school accountability. School Administrator, 65(6), 14–15.
Roulston, K. (2011). Dealing with challenges in doing interview research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 10(4), 348–366.
Roulston, K. (2014). Analyzing interviews. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 297–313). London: Sage Publication, Inc.
Sacks, P. (1999). Standardized minds: The high price of America’s testing culture and what we can do to change it. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Sahlberg, P., Hasak, J., Rodriguez, V., & Associates (2017). Hard questions on global educational change. New York: Teacher College Press.
Schreier, M. (2014). Qualitative content analysis. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 170–184). London: Sage Publication, Inc.
Smedes, L. (1997). The art of forgiving. New York: Random House, Inc.
Stone, D. (2016). Qualitative analysis as narrative. In M. Bevir, & R. Rhodes (Eds.), Routledge handbook of interpretive political science (pp. 157–170). Milton Park: Routledge.
The seven pillars of forgiveness (1977). Philosophical Frameworks & Feminenza International Based on “The Pathways of Forgiveness.”
Thornberg, R., & Oğuz, E. (2013). Teachers’ views on values education: A qualitative study in Sweden and Turkey. International Journal of Educational Research, 59(1), 49–56. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2013.03.005.
Toussaint, L., & Webb, J. (2005). Theoretical and empirical connections between forgiveness, mental health, and well-being. In E. Worthington (Ed.), Handbook of forgiveness (pp. 349–362). New York: Routledge.
Willemse, M., Lunenberg, M., & Korthagen, F. (2005). Values in education: A challenge for teacher educators. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(2), 205–217.
Worthington, E. (2003). Forgiving and reconciling: Bridges to wholeness and hope. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Worthington, E. (2006). Forgiveness and reconciliation: Theory and application. New York: Routledge.
Wubbels, T., Brekelmans, J. M. G., Minhard, T., Brok, den, P., & Tartwijk, van, J. (2016). Teacher—student relationships and student achievement. In K. Wentzel, & G. Ramani (Eds.), Handbook of social influences in school contexts: Social-emotional, motivation, and cognitive outcomes (pp. 127–142). New York: Routledge.
Bailey, R. (Ed.) (2000). Teaching values and citizenship across the curriculum (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Bauer, J., Stamm, A., Virnich, K., Wissing, K., Udo Müller, U., Wirsching, M., & Schaarschmidt, U. (2006). Correlation between burnout syndrome and psychological and psychosomatic symptoms among teachers. International Arch Occupational and Environment Health, 79, 199–204. DOI 10.1007/s00420-005-0050-y.
Berliner, D. (2011). Rational responses to high stakes testing: The case of curriculum narrowing and the harm that follows. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(3), 287-302.
Berliner, D. (2015). The many facets of PISA. Teacher College Record, 117(1), 1–20.
Carr, D. (2006). Professional and personal values and virtues in teaching. Oxford Review of Education, 32(2), 171–183.
Carr, D. (2009). Virtue, mixed emotions and moral ambivalence. Philosophy, 84(327), 31–46. Retrieved January 1, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20533169.
Cornish, F., Gillespie, A., & Zittoun, T. (2014). Collaborative analysis of qualitative data. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 79-93). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, Ltd.
Denham, S., Neal, K., Wilson, B., Pickering, S., & Boyatzis, C. (2005.) Emotional development and forgiveness in children: Emerging evidence. In E. L. Worthington, Jr (Ed.), Handbook of forgiveness (pp. 127–142). New York: Brunner–Routledge.
Dieter-Meyer, H. (2014). The OECD as pivot of the emerging global education accountability regime: How accountable are the accountants? Teacher College Record, 116(9), 1–20.
Dolev, N., & Leshem, S. (2017). Developing emotional intelligence competence among teachers. Teacher Development, 21(1), 21–39.
Dollinger, S. J. (2011). “Standardized minds” or individuality? Admissions tests and creativity revisited. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 5(4), 329–341. https://doi.org/10. 1037/a0023659
Enright, R., & Fitzgibbons, R. P. (2015). Forgiveness education. In Forgiveness Therapy: An empirical guide for resolving anger and restoring hope (pp. 233–250). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Etherington, M. (2013). Values education: Why the teaching of values in schools is necessary, but not sufficient. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 22(2), 189–210. DOI: 10.1080/10656219.2013.808973
Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burnout. Journal of Social Issues, 30(1), 159–165.
Gilar-Corbi, R., Pozo-Rico, T., Pertegal-Felices, M., et al. (2018) Emotional intelligence training intervention among trainee teachers: A quasi-experimental study. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica. 31, 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-018-0112-1.
Golonka, K., & Marek, T. (2015). Job burnout and engagement among teachers: Worklife areas and personality traits as predictors of relationships with work. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 28(1), 102–119.
Halstead, M., & Taylor, M. (1996). Values in education and education in values. London–Washington: The Falmer Press.
Hargreaves, A. (2020). Large-scale assessments and their effects: The case of mid-stakes tests in Ontario. Journal of Educational Change, 21, 393–420.
Heckman, J., Humphries, E., & Kauts, T. (Eds.) (2014). The myth of achievement tests: The GED and the role of character in American life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Johnson, D., Johnson, B., Farenga, S., & Ness, D. (2008). Stop high-stakes testing: An appeal to America’s conscience. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Jones, B. (2007). The unintended outcomes of high-stakes testing. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 23(2), 65–86.
Kowal, S., & O’Connel, D. (2014). Transcriptions as a crucial step of data analysis. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 64–79). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, Ltd.
Lickona, T. (1991) Educating for character: How our schools can teach respect and responsibility. New York: Bantam Books.
Lin, W.-N., Enright, R., & Klatt, J. (2011). Forgiveness as character education for children and adolescents. Journal of Moral Education, 40(2), 237–253.
Lovat, T., Clement, N., Dally, K., & Toomey, R. (2011). The impact of values education on school ambience and academic diligence. International Journal of Educational Research, 50(3), 166–170.
Lovat, T., Toomey, R., Dally, K., & Clement, N. (2009). Project to test and measure the impact of values education on student effects and school ambience. Report for the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Work place relations. (DEEWR) by The University of Newcastle, Australia. Canberra: DEEWR.
Luchies, L., Finkel, E., McNulty, J., & Kumashiro, M. (2010). The doormat effect: When forgiving erodes self-respect and self-concept clarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 734–749.
Madaus, G., & Russell, M. (2017). Paradoxes of high-stakes testing. Journal of Education, 190(1–2), 21–30. DOI:10.1177/0022057410190001-205
Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W., & Leiter, M. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397.
Maxwell, J. (2010). Using numbers in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(6), 475–482.
McCullough, M. E., Rachal, K. C., Sandage, S. J., Worthington, E. L., Jr., Brown, S. W., & Hight, T. L. (1998). Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships: II. Theoretical elaboration and measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(6), 1586–1603. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.6.1586.
McNulty, J. (2011). The dark side of forgiveness: The tendency to forgive predicts continued psychological and physical aggression in marriage. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37 (6), 770–783. DOI: 10.1177/0146167211407077.
McNulty, J. (2020) Highlighting the dark side of forgiveness and the need for a contextual approach. In E. Worthington, Jr., & N. Wade (Eds.), Handbook of forgiveness (2nd ed.) (pp. 33–42). New York: Routledge.
Moreno, A. J., Maloney, V. R., & Brown, K. L. (2010). The case against testing young children to evaluate teacher effectiveness: A position statement from the Marsico Institute for Early Learning and Literacy. Issue Brief, No. 4, University of Denver.
Nichols, S., Berliner, D., & Noddings, N. (2007). Collateral damage: How high-stakes testing corrupts America’s schools. Boston: Harvard Education Press.
Noddings, N. (2005). ‘Caring in education’. The Encyclopedia of Pedagogy and Informal Education. Retrieved December 29, 2020 from: https://infed.org/mobi/caring-in-education/
Osbeck, C., Franck, O., Lilja, A., & Sporre, K. (2018). Possible competences to be aimed at in ethics education: Ethical competences highlighted in educational research journals. Journal of Beliefs & Values, 39(2), 195–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2018.1450807.
Ravitch, D. (2016). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. New York: Basic Books.
Robinson, K. (2018). Creative schools: The grassroots revolution that’s transforming education. New York: Penguin Books.
Rothstein, R. (2008). The corruption of school accountability. School Administrator, 65(6), 14–15.
Roulston, K. (2011). Dealing with challenges in doing interview research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 10(4), 348–366.
Roulston, K. (2014). Analyzing interviews. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 297–313). London: Sage Publication, Inc.
Sacks, P. (1999). Standardized minds: The high price of America’s testing culture and what we can do to change it. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Sahlberg, P., Hasak, J., Rodriguez, V., & Associates (2017). Hard questions on global educational change. New York: Teacher College Press.
Schreier, M. (2014). Qualitative content analysis. In U. Flick (Ed.), The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 170–184). London: Sage Publication, Inc.
Smedes, L. (1997). The art of forgiving. New York: Random House, Inc.
Stone, D. (2016). Qualitative analysis as narrative. In M. Bevir, & R. Rhodes (Eds.), Routledge handbook of interpretive political science (pp. 157–170). Milton Park: Routledge.
The seven pillars of forgiveness (1977). Philosophical Frameworks & Feminenza International Based on “The Pathways of Forgiveness.”
Thornberg, R., & Oğuz, E. (2013). Teachers’ views on values education: A qualitative study in Sweden and Turkey. International Journal of Educational Research, 59(1), 49–56. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2013.03.005.
Toussaint, L., & Webb, J. (2005). Theoretical and empirical connections between forgiveness, mental health, and well-being. In E. Worthington (Ed.), Handbook of forgiveness (pp. 349–362). New York: Routledge.
Willemse, M., Lunenberg, M., & Korthagen, F. (2005). Values in education: A challenge for teacher educators. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(2), 205–217.
Worthington, E. (2003). Forgiving and reconciling: Bridges to wholeness and hope. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Worthington, E. (2006). Forgiveness and reconciliation: Theory and application. New York: Routledge.
Wubbels, T., Brekelmans, J. M. G., Minhard, T., Brok, den, P., & Tartwijk, van, J. (2016). Teacher—student relationships and student achievement. In K. Wentzel, & G. Ramani (Eds.), Handbook of social influences in school contexts: Social-emotional, motivation, and cognitive outcomes (pp. 127–142). New York: Routledge.