Values without knowledge are blind; knowledge without values is irresponsible – although we were not always aware of that, this principle, and the need to provide education that helps overcome both blindness and irresponsibility has driven us to develop VaKE, to use it in practice, to adapt it to new populations, conditions, topics, and to improve it. We have also presented VaKE at conferences, written papers in journals, book chapters and booklets in several languages. Very often, we were asked to conceive a comprehensive text about VaKE. With the present handbook, we comply with this wish. We asked many researchers and practitioners to write about VaKE, and this is what turned out. The handbook is not comprehensive in that it covers all relevant issues about VaKE; for this, VaKE has evolved too much, and it is used more often than we know of. Nevertheless, the handbook gives a fairly representative picture of the current state of VaKE with respect to its theoretical underpinning, its practical application, and its future perspective, as far as this can be judged. The thirty authors from nine countries testify to the dissemination of VaKE, and the scope of topics addressed to confirm the theoretical richness and the widespread usefulness of the approach. There are plenty of individual experiences of very different kinds reported by the different authors; all of them converge, it seems, to the statement that VaKE is a valuable tool.
For us, the four editors, the decision to edit a book on theory and practice of the didactical approach VaKE – Values and Knowledge Education was not an easy one, primarily because this handbook is not the result of an international project: The chapters present and share the single and individual experiences, considerations on modifications, and follow-up ideas of the authors using VaKE with very diverse groups of learners. These experiences have been established very individually over a very long timeline and under very diverse conditions and objectives of the learning process. Such a manifoldness could have been to become growing points to the need for a stable theoretical base, which is also included in this handbook.
The handbook is addressed at practitioners who want to know about VaKE and possibly to use it, as well as at researchers and people interested in the theoretical foundation and research issues related with VaKE. The different groups of readers will start with different chapters within this handbook. With this handbook, we try to stimulate and motivate to look also at the other side of the coin: Practitioners to read about the theory because to apply VaKE successfully, a minimal understanding of this background is essential, and the theoreticians to relate to the practical experiences (and their outcomes) with VaKE.
This aim is shared by all authors. We want to thank all contributors for their willingness to transfer their narrated experiences into a written form, their accuracy regarding the work and deadlines, and their motivation to continue using VaKE. We also thank the editor of the book series on Moral Development and Citizenship Education, Wiel Veugelers, for his encouragement, support, and constructive feedback – we have tried not to be vague about VaKE in this handbook. Furthermore, we thank the staff at Brill, in particular John Bennett, Henriët Graafland and Jolanda Karada, for their passion and constructive attitude when it came to overcoming editorial obstacles.