Mantle of Teacher Educators in the Inculcation of Values among Prospective Teachers

The hall mark of the ancient Indian Education was that moral precepts and values formed an integral part of the curriculum of the day. The legacy has been passed down from one generation to another and even today dealing with values and moral issues and inculcating the same in the student community is recognized as an integral part of teachers’ roles. In the context of the changing social and cultural milieu, both in India and abroad, there is a crying need to imbue the younger generation with the right kind of value system so that they can handle the formidable challenges which they face on daily basis along with the rigors of life. Education has both an enormous and a defining role to play in the social, intellectual and political transformation of the society. Effective teaching practices in imparting value education have ranges from storytelling, exhibitions, skits, one act play and group discussions to various other formats. In the era of information and communicating technology, it can be hard to get a grip on the evolving roles of teachers and comprehend the duties of the teachers precisely. It seems as if the role of teachers has grown many fold; they are now expected to be tech-savvy, computer literate and acquire mastery over the cutting edge technologies pertaining to education. To inculcate values among the prospective teachers, the teacher educators, first and foremost, should be made to acquire the necessary attitude, knowledge and skills so that they can discharge their functions seamlessly and to the benefit of the prospective teachers. The role of the educators has become both challenging and rewarding, in terms of inculcating the right set of values among the learners. The proper assimilation of these values by the prospective teachers to a great part depends on the teacher educator and a teacher educator can do this through his positive role and prescribed means. Teacher educators must thoroughly comprehend what values are and their precise role in promoting multicultural values education. This paper, keeping in view the imperativeness of value inculcation in prospective teachers, focuses on the issue of teachers’ training in relation to value education, the necessary changes that are to be brought about in the pre-service teachers education so that they will enable the inculcation of the pertinent values among the prospective teachers for the betterment of the next generation education.