Educational Ethics: Dilemmas of Diversity Pilot Project

• In Event: Professional Ethics for Future Teachers: Fostering Educational Responsibility

Abstract

This paper presents the initial qualitative analysis of a pilot project identifying and elaborating ethical issues in teachers’ work located in a culturally diverse Australian major city. It sought a research focus on dilemmas which are intrinsic to the moral nature teachers’ work (Colnerud, 1997, 2006), but also recognizable to Australian teachers’ experiences acknowledging localized sociopolitical, economic, and cultural characteristics associated with transitioning schools and society towards greater social justice.

Perspectives
The Department of Education (DET) New South Wales Code of Conduct states that all employees of the DET must be “committed to social justice by opposing prejudice, injustice and dishonesty” (2010, p. 3.). Influenced by the non-ideal theorising of the Normative Case Study (Levinson and Fay, 2016, 2019) and semi-empirical philosophical research in the moral work of teaching (Campbell, 2003) the project takes up a ‘Southern’ theoretical perspective also known as ‘dirty theory’ (Hardy, 2012), by premising the need for “theorizing mixed up with specific situations” aimed at illuminating “a situation in its concreteness” (Connell, 2007).

Methods and Data Sources
The project asked ‘How do educators appeal to social justice and recognize dilemmas of equity in schooling?’ and ‘What problems do educators face in implementing values education in culturally diverse NSW public schools?’ As a qualitative case study drawing on narrative inquiry methodologies, methods included a demographic survey in which participants nominated a particular critical ethical incident (Shapira-Lischinsky, 2016) they intended to discuss in the subsequent individual semi-structured interview held in their school environment. Interview summary notes were taken by the interview observer, whilst discussion was led by the researcher. Interviews were transcribed as the main data for thematic analysis. The coding process used open and axial coding, referring to key phrases and words in order to determine contextual, topical and normative themes.
Results

Situated in a low socioeconomic school with up to 25 nationalities side by side and just under half the population from the lowest quartile of Socio-Educational Advantage, the research identified ethical experiences, morally troubling issues and potential dilemmas from the interview data, using the demographic survey data to contextualize teacher perspectives. Results summarize how particular ethical themes, teachers’ roles, and school context intersect to provide background to a Normative Case Study (Douglas & Forster, 2018) and reports the results of the thematic coding to offer a descriptive insight of participants’ ethical challenges.

Scholarly significance
There are a range of tensions and challenges for professional ethics in Australian schools (Forster, 2012), with many emerging from recent global and local events. Normative Case Studies can be important resources to assist teachers in teasing out the ethical dimensions of practice and ought to be based on empirical phenomena to generate significant and recognizable issues. There are few Australian studies specifically focusing on teachers’ ethical concerns in low socioeconomic and multicultural contexts. This interdisciplinary research does two things: it begins to address the gap in Australian research-based ethics education resource material in teacher education; and secondly, it will contribute to the broader understanding of ethical complexities in Australian schools.

Author

• Daniella J. Forster, The University of Newcastle Australia