Teacher Core Values: 7 Strategies for Living Your Code
Teacher core values are the convictions you won't trade away when a decision gets hard. Commonly discussed professional values include integrity, empathy, respect, fairness, and responsibility. Naming yours matters because the pressure to soften them is real. Write down your five, back each with experience, and you'll know where you stand.
Live your code!
There are so many ways to say the same thing…
…Be true to yourself!
…Stand up for yourself!
…Live by your morals!
…Have strong ethics!
…Don't let others change you!
…Stand up for what you believe in!
…Continue living your best life!
When what you believe in is compromised, what do you do? Do you lean in and persevere?
I am a huge Brené Brown follower. She states, "Lean into the discomfort of the work."
I found recently that "leaning" in can be the most difficult task you could ever do. In my experience, the "discomfort" can be so tremendous that you second-guess your job; you may even ask why you are in education, and it can possibly make you look at jobs outside of the profession altogether.
After some affirmation from the correct people, I now know why I must lean in. Digging deep and finding the courage, I am leaning into this discomfort, and I have created a mantra for myself that I continually repeat: "Stand up, and advocate for students and staff!"
In education, everything has come under the microscope. Things that were once never on a political platform have been highlighted in the most unusual ways in our schools across America.
From where I sit, school boards are changing. I have watched trustees get voted onto boards without children of school age, or with children they homeschool. At the same time, I am hearing from more parents questioning curriculum than I used to, though I have no national figures to put behind that and the picture differs by state and district. To note, parents have always had the ability to review, comment, and many school districts include parents on the curriculum committees that implement new resources. Though this may sound controversial, I would argue we want parents to be a part of our decision-making process.
Running parallel to these situations, administrator turnover in the states I work across concerns me. There are not enough people wanting to become education leaders, and teacher preparation programs do not look to me like they are producing enough graduates for what schools will need. This next part is a prediction and not a certainty: I expect a teacher and leader shortage in public education over the next decade unlike any we have seen.
College students may see what is going on in education and are second-guessing going into the field. With all this consternation, political unrest, and the shortage of educators I expect over the next decade, public education will continue to change. How can we communicate this need in order to go to a solution?
Unfortunately, many educators are finding it difficult to stand up for what is best for all students. Who says what is best for all students when a minority is so vocal and is persistent? What will it take to bring people together and decide on what is best for all students?
Local control in many states and school districts is strong. This can be a good thing, but what happens when the locally controlled curriculum is far from the middle of the road in educating the "mainstream" for all students?
My concern is that book bans, censored topics, and redefined policies are creating a curriculum where students miss out on valuable learning opportunities. Learning about other cultures, learning about equity, learning about social and emotional regulation strategies, and learning about diversity are taking a backseat in some districts. Policies here differ substantially by state and by district.
I predict that with less diversified learning opportunities, social problems within our communities will continue. Using problem-solving skills such as empathy, resilience, and compassion also will take a backseat. When this occurs, controversy and chaos continue to be more commonplace, and people's persistent perceptions of their world become even less empathetic and more distant to others' viewpoints.
One of my favorite colleagues whom I follow in education had a great quote recently,
"Sometimes we subconsciously dehumanize people you disagree with. Be careful. In our self-righteousness, we can easily become the very things we dislike in others. Ultimately, the way we treat people we disagree with is a report card on what we've learned about love and compassion. Every single person you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something. Know this. Respect this. And be extra kind."
Thom Peck, Superintendent
Lewistown Public Schools
Lewistown, Montana
Living my code has been a mantra I learned from a philosophy called High Trust Psychology, which was developed by Dennis M. McLoughlin. He worked for Dr. William Glasser, the psychiatrist who first developed Choice Theory, at Glasser's Educator Training Center. Living one's code is the ability to stick to your convictions. In education, we have truths that we hold high that illustrate our moral compass.
Recently, I was chosen to present at a statewide conference (the state will remain anonymous, but you know who you are, state!), and was asked to change my presentation title, as well as any corresponding references to SEL. The reason I was given was that Critical Race Theory and Social and Emotional Learning had become tangled together in people's minds. I can speak to that conference and nothing wider. I am not in a position to say which specific curricula, standards, funding rules, or instructional practices any particular state or district has restricted, and those are different things from a ban on a term.
TRUTH -- Teachers have been teaching social and emotional regulation for decades.
When a student needs strategies to fix a friendship at school, a teacher steps in and gives them words and actions to use. That is social learning. We have always taught social skills in our schools to make life better for everyone.
When a student comes to school hungry, distressed, or struggling to regulate emotions, learning that day takes a backseat. The teacher steps in, responds with support, and connects that student to the people and resources the school has for them. Procedures for food insecurity, suspected neglect, and counseling referrals involve specific staff and district and legal requirements, so a teacher's job is to notice and route it, not to handle it alone. This is emotional learning. We have always taught emotional skills in our schools to support students with most everything that life throws at them.
These types of social and emotional learning opportunities are so valuable both at home and at school. If we argue that SEL should only be addressed at home, what should happen the other eight hours while students are at school? Do we ignore their needs and say, "I am only here to teach you what 7 + 5 equals. You will need to go home to have your parents work with you on your emotional regulation." This may sound ridiculous, but I recently had a couple (no kids or grandkids in our school system) write into a local newspaper calling me out as superintendent for just that! They wanted me to teach reading and math, and leave the SEL stuff for parents.
When I live my code, I am sticking to my convictions. I am inherently going to work on skills with students that will give them the ability to problem-solve life's situations, or at least a plethora of them!
In some communities, I know I am too much with my philosophical stances. When toxicity persists, I treat it like a sickness and remove myself. There are some things you can't change, but I will continue to focus on what I can.
Here are seven strategies that can support you in "Living Your Code" in education!
1 -- Know Your Non-Negotiables…What do you believe in and what makes up your code?
What do you believe in? If you were to argue what you believe in within the education field, what do you think you would defend? Here are five of my convictions and non-negotiables that I believe I can defend from my experience in and out of the classroom:
- Kindness, Empathy, and Compassion Should Be Modeled and Taught in Schools and at Home
- We Must Learn About Others' Cultures and Backgrounds; Diversity Is A Good Thing!
- Social and Emotional Regulation Is Needed Now More Than Ever Before
- Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
- When Creating a Positive Culture, High Expectations For Everyone is Vital
With these five making up a majority of my code, you can see where arguments could arise. I back my code with real-life situations, research, and other professionals who have had the same experiences as myself.
Make a list of your top five convictions for education. What would be on your list?
2 -- Take Time To Listen and Learn…Living your code also means understanding the other side!
So often we get into conversations with people who are unwilling to hear your side of the argument or story. Model for these people how you take time to listen and learn from them. This continual modeling of respect to people who are unable to listen to you will eventually pay off; if not, we get to choose to not be around these people.
The art of listening is just that, an art. When we fully listen, we are taking in not only the words of what someone else is saying, but we are also attuned to their tone of voice, continue to read their body language, and ultimately spend more time formulating and crafting our own response. Listening then becomes an art, as hearing is just the science of noise.
Love the quote, "God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. We should be listening twice as much as we are talking."
3 -- Protect Your Energy Around Toxic Behavior…Set limits where you can, and use the right channels at work.
The people I would describe as toxic tear others down. In my experience, they choose not to listen, and when someone is that stuck in their convictions, compassion tends to be the first thing to go.
Living one's code also means being able to understand and listen to the other side of your convictions. Your code stops serving you when it leaves no room for empathy. Where I can, I limit my time around people whose behavior wears me down. That is a personal coping habit rather than established psychology, and at work it does not replace your district's conflict-resolution or supervisory procedures, which exist for a reason and should come first.
Unfortunately, in our society, people love the drama that comes with these behaviors. The analogy I use for myself is a cold, not a diagnosis of anyone. Often we have some say in how much time we spend around it. The steadier I am, the easier I find it to step back.
4 -- Understand the Sympathy, Empathy, Compassion Continuum…We must continue to work towards acting with empathy and compassion.
I first heard about the Compassion Continuum from two authors, Kristin Souers and Pete Hall, who wrote the book, Fostering Resilient Learners (2016). Teaching this progression is part of their approach to building a trauma-informed school. What follows is their framework, not a universally accepted psychological progression.
Sympathy -> Empathy -> Compassion
In their framing, sympathy is feeling sorry for someone else, and empathy is a deeper level of connectedness that they describe as asking more of us. They define empathy as the ability to understand someone else's feelings. What we do with that understanding is what their model treats as the important part. Compassion, in their terms, is taking action out of that understanding. Empathy does not automatically become compassion, which is why they teach it as something to work at.
We can teach compassion to our students by using this continuum. In fact, we can model this for everyone around us as it becomes part of our code!
5 -- Passion Drives Your Code…Passion for creating our code may change our perceptions, but don't waver back and forth!
I love connecting with passionate educators who made the decision to become teachers for all the right reasons. They believe in who they are, and they believe they can make a difference in the lives of students. Nothing gives me more goosebumps and hope for the future than when I am around these people. I spend twice as much time listening as speaking. In fact, my goal is to continue to find people with this same passion for educating kids!
In the buildings I have worked in, much of that passion has been stilted by a small number of people who are hostile toward public education. The teachers I work with seem to lose some of their passion as they get questioned about everything they do with kids. We need this passion back; we need to live our code and do it with conviction.
I am finding in chatting with people around the United States that they are not speaking up about the great things going on in public education. They tell me they fear retaliation or negative feedback from factions in our communities. They take the pathway of least resistance. Some of the teachers I have talked with are changing the way they think and ultimately changing their code even though they don't believe in the change. I want to be careful here: this is what I hear in my own conversations, not a finding about teachers generally. They are making this change in order to stay out of the controversy. It seems to me they are giving up on their convictions. They don't want to expend the energy needed to communicate these convictions. Some teachers are even wavering in their beliefs…one week they support an issue, the next week they pull back.
We need that passion back as it drives our code!
6 -- Build Your PLN…Find other people who have a similar code as you, and build your team!
It is not easy to stand alone in your convictions. Ridicule and targeted accusations make living our code difficult, and sometimes it may even feel impossible. In order to live our code, we must continually find other people who have a similar code so we can build a team.
In my view, Professional Learning Networks have changed education over the past decade more than almost anything else. Educators are finding other people who have similar interests or people that they want to learn from not only around the United States, but worldwide. I would argue social media and PLN's have been the single largest positive change in public education in the past decade. That is my opinion from my own work, not a research finding.
Find your people, build your PLN, continue to build and rebuild your code!
7 -- Use Your Code to Provide Hope…Creating a vision of hope is vital to our existence.
I love an analogy I first heard from Stacy York, LCSW. She described a coin with two sides, trauma on one and resiliency on the other. That is her image, and I use it as an image, not as clinical fact. Trauma and resilience are more tangled than two faces of the same coin; resilience is not a fixed set of skills a person either has or lacks, and I am not in a position to say hope is the one thing that makes it work. What the analogy does for me is keep the practical point in view: coping is easier when a person has something to draw on, and hope is a real part of that.
When hope runs short, coping gets harder. In my work now, I make it a point to support and provide hope to students and families. Connecting resources, people, and strategies to students who may have lost hope is now part of my code that I live every day!
How can you provide hope and a vision for the future?
Frequently Asked Questions
What are teacher core values?
Teacher core values are the professional convictions that guide how you make decisions in a classroom or a building. Commonly discussed professional values include integrity, empathy, respect, fairness, and responsibility. One test this piece argues for is whether you hold a value when holding it costs you something. That is the author's framing rather than an established definition.
How do I identify my own core values as a teacher?
Start by writing down five convictions you would defend if a parent, a colleague, or a school board member pushed back on them. Then attach evidence to each one, whether that is a moment from your own classroom, research you trust, or a colleague whose practice you have watched. The author's argument here is that a value you cannot back with experience is the one most likely to move under pressure.
What is the difference between personal core values and a school's core values?
Personal core values are yours, and they travel with you between buildings and districts. A school's core values are shared terms of practice, usually written by staff together, that describe how everyone will work toward the school's mission. The two can align closely, and when they do not, that gap is worth naming rather than ignoring.
Why do core values matter when education policy shifts?
Because policy changes faster than practice does. When terminology gets restricted, or curriculum gets challenged, teachers who have already named their convictions have something steady to reason from. Teachers who have not tend to take the path of least resistance, which is how a value quietly becomes a preference.
- Name your five - Write down five convictions you could defend to a parent, a colleague, or a school board, and attach real evidence to each one.
- Integrity, empathy, respect, fairness, responsibility - These are commonly discussed professional values, offered as examples and a starting point rather than a finished or authoritative list.
- Values get tested, not admired - The author's test for a core value is whether you hold it when holding it costs you something.
- Personal and institutional values are separate - Yours travel with you between buildings, a school's are written collectively, and the gap between them is worth naming out loud.
- Find people who share your code - A professional learning network makes convictions easier to hold, because standing alone in them is what wears teachers down.
If this has you thinking less about your convictions and more about the next step in your own career, educational leadership and curriculum programs are where these questions get formal names and a research base. The sponsored programs on this page include online and hybrid formats built around teachers who are already working in a building full time, though curriculum programs do not necessarily lead to a state credential. If pursuing an administrator or other educator credential, verify that the program meets the requirements in your state.
As a 5th grade teacher, in 2010 Jon won the Presidential Award for Elementary Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST). As a principal, his school won the 2012 Blue Ribbon Award. In 2018, he won the National Distinguished Principal Award (NDP). In 2019 he won the National No Kid Hungry Breakfast Hero Award.
Jon is the author of three guides published on teacher.org: An Educator's Guide to Combat Bullying & Bully Prevention; Teacher Evaluation: A Transition Guide to Exemplary Performance; and You are the Wild Card: Infusing Fun Back into Curriculum. He has authored a children's picture book that was released January 2019 titled Benjamin’s Visit to Principal Reads Office…again! (available at www.archwaypublishing.com)
- Learning How to Say No and Set Boundaries with Parents - November 21, 2022
- How to Implement a Check-In, Check-Out (CICO) Behavior System - September 26, 2022
- Teacher Core Values: 7 Strategies for Living Your Code - August 15, 2022
