Nottingham Education Network

NEN Explain: British Values

British Values

British Values

Within education, when speaking about British values, they often refer to the political perspective of Fundamental British Values.

Culturally, the values that makeup what it means to be ‘British’ are ever-evolving, whereas the Fundamental British Values are a set of four, or five, depending on where you look, values that underpin what it is to be a citizen in a modern, democratic and diverse society in the United Kingdom.

The values are Democracy, Rule of Law, Respect and Tolerance, and Individual Liberty. These values were designed to promote and protect our national identity and national values of freedom of thought, expression and choice while maintaining the need for safety and security within the country.

What are the individual values?

Democracy

This value is based on the idea that everyone should have an equal say in how their country, city, educational institutions, classroom and daily life are run and that the government should be accountable to the people.

This value is also based upon the idea of freedom, equality and choice, where everyone is aware of their rights and responsibilities within their country, city, educational institutions, classroom and daily life.

Rule of Law

This value is based on the idea that everyone in society should be treated equally and fairly in order for there to be a positive, safe and secure environment for all. The rule of law also promotes and champions a sense of order and stability in local communities and wider society and highlights the need for everyone to follow the same rules and laws as responsible citizens within the UK.

Individual Liberty

This value is based on the idea of choice, autonomy and agency in the control and capacity to influence and pursue one’s interests and goals, as well as promoting an understanding of how one’s actions can impact others around them and the roles and responsibilities they have as citizens within the UK.

Respect and Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs

Finally, this value is based on the idea that all individuals don’t share the same beliefs, opinions, values and experiences and that this is, in fact, a strength within a community or society. It promotes the premise, put simply, of ‘treat others as you want to be treated’ or of respecting and tolerating the beliefs, opinions, values and experiences of others whilst not imposing our own on others.

Unlike the other values, there can be some confusion with the makeup of it. Some would have this as one of the four Fundamental British Values, whereas others would split this into two separate values. This being ‘Mutual respect’ and ‘Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. Either way, the meaning is the same and promotes the ideas of understanding and respect.

A Brief Origins of the British Values

The concept of the current values originated within the Prevent strategy, which came from the Counter Terrorism Act. The Prevent Strategy aimed to address the rise in extremism within the UK. Within this strategy, there was a range of groups identified as being classed as extremists, from Islamic extremism to white nationalists.

Within the Prevent strategy originally, the teaching of Fundamental British Values was not made compulsory. The phrasing used was to respect the fundamental British values. This was later amended in 2014 in the wake of the Trojan Horse Affair (for more information regarding this, please click here), which meant that the fundamental British values became compulsory for schools to promote and monitor. The Trojan Horse affair was based on an anonymous letter being sent to Birmingham City Council in which this incomplete letter described a plan to take over a number of schools and run them on strict Islamic teachings.

This letter went on to summarise the five-stage process needed to remove headteachers and take control of schools that it stated had been implemented and practised in several schools already, which resulted in the desired results. The five stages outlined within the letter were:

“Identify your schools;
Select a group of Salafi parents;
Put our own governor in;
Identify key staff to disrupt the school from within; and
Anonymous letter and PR campaign” (Clarke, 2014, p.g. 5).

As stated, the desired outcome of these five stages was to as stated within the letter to ‘wear down’, remove or diminish their resilience to the extent that they resign from their position and, in effect, allow for the installation of an in the letters, authors’ views, an appropriate Islamic leaning head teacher.

Despite West Midlands Police, Birmingham City Council and Ofsted subsequent inspection, which found multiple fails but nothing confirming the plan to be anything more than a hoax, media reporting on the Trojan Horse Affair began at the end of February 2014. They became the focal point of the news agenda. With the growing attention, worry and frustration of the public and the government’s need to be seen to be ‘doing something’ around this alleged radicalisation of an entire city’s education system, in November of 2014, Fundamental British Values became mandatory.

A NEN Discuss on British Values can be found here NEN Discuss: British Values.

Reference list

England. Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement, 2018. The Ties that Bind: Citizenship and Civic Engagement in the 21st Century. London: HM Government. Available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldcitizen/118/118.pdf

Peter Clarke, 2014, Report into allegations concerning Birmingham schools arising from ‘Trojan Horse’ letter. London: HM Government. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf

Revell. L and Bryan. H, 2018. Fundamental British Values in Education: Radicalisation, National Identity and Britishness. London: Emerald Publishing.