The topic of values has been important in educational, philosophical, psychological, and sociological research for over a century. Cultures have certain values, beliefs, customs, and social behaviours, whereas societies encompass people who share mutual values and beliefs. The term ‘culture’ conveys a system of values, beliefs, and symbols – a system analytically discernible from ‘society’, which includes groups, roles, and norms (see Durkheim 1964; Thompson 1998). Hofstede's discussion of cultural values (1991) identified the dominance of cultural values over behaviours and acknowledged that cultural values communicate and sustain particular norms of interaction and understanding, which are emulated in the communicative behaviours of individuals (also see Hofstede 2001). Stuart Hall produced an impressive body of work on the relationship between culture and power and on the formative role of culture as a political and educational practice, produced and mediated within different social contexts, spatial relations, and historical junctures (see Giroux 2000). Foucault (1982, 1998) understood both power and knowledge as textual: power and knowledge are not seen as independent entities but are inextricably intertwined. Meanwhile, knowledge and culture simultaneously state the condition of the world and reproduce political beliefs and values (Giroux 2000; also see Apple 1996, 2014; Hall 1997).

Values are the guiding force of education as well as of teaching and learning school subjects, including the humanities, commerce, and science.