Care-Based Moral Judgments in Organizations: Exploring Gendered Ethical Decision Making in Schools

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Twelve
  In Roundtable Session: Moral Development and Education Within Schools and Organizations (Table 10)

Abstract

Care considerations are often attributed to women. Nevertheless, studies have seldom investigated (fe)male teachers and principals’ inclination to adopt care reasoning when facing ethical dilemmas. To address this gap, we quantitatively examined the relationship between gender and the emergence of care as a dominant ethic, by educators’ position (teacher/principal) and school level (primary/secondary). Employing the Ethical Perspective Instrument, data was collected from 140 aspiring and 61 acting Israeli principals. Surprisingly, care as a dominant ethic did not distinguish female and male teachers. Additionally, traversing gender boundaries, primary principals' tendency to adopt care as a dominant ethic was significantly higher than that of secondary principals of both sexes. Results suggest that contextual contingencies play a significant role in shaping ethical considerations.

Authors

• Ori Eyal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Presenting Author

• Izhak Berkovich, The Open University of Israel
  Presenting Author