Teacher Values Underlying Professional Ethics

Abstract

(from the chapter) In the 1990s, the moral base of the teaching profession and the ethical dilemmas in teaching were popular themes in educational research (Colnerud, 1997; Oser, 1994; Sockett, 1993; Tirri, 1999). In the 2000s the research on teachers' professional morality and ethical conduct in teaching has actively continued (Campbell, 2003; Hanhimaki & Tirri, 2008, 2009; Husu & Tirri, 2003; Tirri, 2003, 2008; Tirri & Husu, 2002; Tirri & Puolimatka, 2000). The everyday life of teachers involves relations with pupils, parents, and colleagues. A school provides an institutional context for teachers' ethical dilemmas and interactive relationships. Previous research on ethical dilemmas in teaching indicates that teachers are not always aware of the moral impact of their actions (Jackson, Boostrom & Hansen, 1993). Furthermore, teachers have reported themselves to be ill prepared to deal with those ethical dilemmas they have identified in their work (Lyons, 1990; Tirri, 1999). These research findings guide us to pay more attention to teacher professionalism in our research and teaching. In this chapter our aim is to identify and investigate teachers' values and beliefs underlying their professional ethics. We build on our previous empirical work on the pedagogical values identified by teachers (Husu & Tirri, 2007; Tirri & Husu, 2006). the values underlying urban school principals' work (Hanhimaki & Tirri, 2008), and ethically sensitive responses of teachers in critical incidents at school (Hanhimaki & Tirri, 2009). We aim to provide a review of teachers' values underlying their professional ethics and discuss them with the values behind teachers' ethical guidelines (Code of Ethics for Finnish Teachers, 1998). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)