The Gray Areas: Professional Ethics and Meaning Making

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching Across Contexts: Meaning Making Across Complex Landscapes

Abstract

Professional organizing bodies (i.e., the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education [NCATE], and the Council for Accreditation of Education Programs [CAEP]) have articulated the importance of teachers’ dispositions such as honesty, integrity, and an understanding of professional ethics (NCATE, 2000). Maxwell and Schwimmer (2016) chronicled how in other fields such as law and medicine there is generally agreement on basic and established ethical principles that shape teaching and learning for entering professionals. In teaching however, there is lack of a common ethical ground, despite the reality that teachers regularly face situations that may include ethical considerations and competing priorities (Campbell, 2003). This study explores the theoretical approaches to study how teachers make meaning of and describe enacting professional ethics.

Author

• Charity Mack Dacey, Montclair State University