Professional Ethical Dilemmas and Choices of Action among Teachers in the Practice Schools of the Teacher Training College

Author(s):

Frøydis Oma Ohnstad(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 09 A, Parallel Paper Session

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-20

11:00-12:30

Room:

FCEE - Aula 4.9

Chair:

Majella V Dempsey

Contribution

Teachers are continually facing choices in their professional experiences, choices that often imply options between values of great importance for the pupils. My initial position is that teaching must be looked upon as an ethical concern. The teachers´ ethical values are important because the intention of teaching is purposeful growth and progress of the students, and the students are strongly dependent on their teachers (Tom, 1984). In teacher education professional ethical competence is emphasized as one of five areas of competence for the development of the students.

In a survey I ask how teachers in group conversations talk about professional ethical dilemmas from their everyday lives.

My research questions are:

· What kind of typical features of the professional ethical problems and dilemmas do the teachers choose to present for each other?

· How do teachers solve these problems and dilemmas?

· How do they justify/ legitimize their solutions?

Method

The questions are answered empirically through a longitudinal survey of teachers´s conversations about experiences and ethical dilemmas in professional contexts. The theoretical framing is moral philosophy and educational theories. The empirical data consists of transcriptions from monthly conversations through one year of two groups of practice teachers at the teacher training college. The method is inspired by the focus group methodology (Morgan, 1997). The data has been analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Fenstermacher & Richardson´s (1993) and Toulmin´s (2003) theoretical perspectives were basis for the methodological part of the project connected to argumentation and teachers´ practical reasoning.

Expected Outcomes

The study indicates that the teachers´ ethical dilemmas are mainly connected to human relations, and in a very small degree to the professional teaching program. The choices of action are personal, related to context, and based on experience. Dialogue as solution is very common, the meaning of the dialogue is, however, varied. The teachers are not reflecting on whether some solutions are better than others. In most cases they give reasons for them out of consideration for what is ”the best interest for the child”. What ”the best interest for the child” means is not reflected on, it seems to be taken for granted. It appears as ”the rhetoric of goodness”. The loyalty to colleagues seems, however, in several cases to be able to overrule the care (concern) for the pupil. Mainly appears what is ethical right as showing care and consideration based on a private moral – not based on professional ethical values

References

Campbell, E. (2003). The ethical teacher. Maidenhead: Open University press. Colnerud, G. (1997). Ethical conflicts in teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(6), 627-635. Colnerud, G. (2003). Moral dimensions of teaching: An essay review of exploring the moral heart of teaching. Towards a teacher's creed. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19(5), 559-561. Fenstermacher, G. D., & Richardson, V. (1993). The elicitation and reconstruction of practical arguments in teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 25(2), 101-114. Morgan, D. L. (1997). Focus groups as qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications Ohnstad, F. O. (2008). Profesjonsetiske dilemmaer og handlingsvalg blant lærere i lærerutdanningens praksisskoler. (Professional Ethical Dilemmas and Choices of Action among Teachers in the Practice Schools of the Teacher Training College). Ph.D, Unipub forl., Oslo. Ohnstad, F. O. (2004). Focus groups as a method for collecting qualitative data. Paper presented at the NFPF: "The Positioning of Education in Contemporary Knowledge Society", Island, Reykjavik. Tom, A. R. (1984). Teaching as a Moral Craft. New York: Longman Inc. Toulmin, S. (2003). The uses of argument Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author Information

Frøydis Oma Ohnstad (presenting / submitting)

Oslo and Akershus university college, Norway

Faculty of teacher education and international studies

Oslo

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