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Values
In delving into the ethical basis of a practical school world, philosophical theories
of values and virtues were used to help categorize and analyze the respondents’
answers. My duty was to try to define the word excellence, which is related to the
word good. So, Hurka must be obeyed:
The theory of value or of the good is one of the two main branches of ethical
theory, alongside the theory of the right. Whereas the theory of the right
specifies which actions are right and which are wrong, the theory of value
says which states of affairs are intrinsically good and which intrinsically evil.
The theory of the right may say that keeping promises is right and lying
wrong; the theory of value can say that pleasure is good and pain evil, or
that knowledge and virtue are good and vice evil. Since these states are not
actions, they cannot be right or wrong, but they can have positive or negative
value. (Hurka, 2006, p. 357)
Hurka also reminds the reader of G. E. Moore’s (1903) view on the unanalyzable
property of goodness (= value) but still admits that it is usually agreed, even among
those who cannot define what good is, that good is what it is correct to love and what
people have reason to desire (Hurka, p. 358).
According to Ahlman (1967), what an individual considers to be valuable shows
her/his morality. In exploring value, Audi (2007, p. 36) referred to the valuable in the
sense of what is good in itself – commonly called intrinsically good or intrinsically
desirable. A beautiful painting has value, but this value is extrinsic because it depends
on the reactions of someone looking at it (Driver, 2007, p. 8). If something is good
or desirable as a means or as an instrument to bring about something else, it is
instrumentally good. Enjoying music can be good in itself, but it is also instrumental
when producing relaxation (Audi, 2007; Teikari, 2016).

Personal Values
I used different sets of questions in the research depending on the respondents’
professional status in the education sector. The following questions on values were
used:
1. What are values?
2. What are your values?
3. How would you describe your own values?
4. What values are important to you?
Examples of responses (with value expressions noted in italics) are as follows:
• Principal of an upper secondary school:
Values: Now I assume you’re not talking here about a hierarchy of values
such as the need to be loved…this must mean something about my
personal values as a principal or as a human being? As a human being,
of course, my family is number one, absolutely. Any school head who
doesn’t admit that work comes second is lying! That said, nobody would
choose this job if they don’t consider work to be important. Family is
important, but also honesty is a core value…one keeps forgetting it,
honesty and reliability are the principal’s most important values!
• Principal of a comprehensive school:
Fairness and justice are my values, at least, and in a way also honesty,

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