Revisiting the Concept of Values Taught in Education through Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

Schools and universities are not only places to learn subject knowledge, but also places to help students develop their values. Despite this explicit need for cultivating students’ values, what values should be taught is always a common question among educators. While seminal theories have proposed different typologies of values, few of them have been connected to the social environment that currently governs people’s behaviors. From a theoretical standpoint, this study reviews the concept of values and draws attention to Carroll’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), which fosters a mindset of altruism rather than self-interest. By recalling how Carroll’s CSR relates to human values, students will be taught to behave correctly in society. As a result, a two-layer paradigm, which highlights the importance of a value system that is understated in social practices, is introduced. This paper promises to redirect social dialogues about core values and help generate future research directions in the field.