| Summary: | This qualitative case study examined how teachers addressed selected core skills in a private junior boarding school. The core skills, which the school seeks to teach their students, are found in a published list that highlights 35 skills, under eight major headings. The three core skills examined aim at imparting values, instead of academic content, and are listed under the heading of citizenship. This study sought to illuminate how they were taught in several areas of the curriculum in order to better understand how value-forming education was evident and whether there were any patterns to how teachers understood the link between these skills and creating critical citizens. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six faculty participants and three mid-level administrators. The data also included two observations of each of the six faculty participants, policy documents, and field notes. Interview data were analyzed through case study methodology and content analysis. The three major themes found revealed that: faculty taught the core skills more instinctively than intentionally, teaching of the three core skills was present and substantial in all four contexts studied with dialogue emerging as the main mode for transfer, and there was a lack of connection between the core skills teaching and critical citizenship. These themes were grounded in literature related to curriculum, value-forming education, and critical consciousness. They were assessed through a critical pedagogy framework. The findings led to these recommendations for supporting teaching in this context: increase dialogue and reflection concerning the core skills, increase faculty professional development with value-forming educational methods, add administrative support, and reexamine or realign the core skills and other policies--Author's abstract
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