Real-world pedagogical ethics: mission impossible?

Abstract

The article presents three different reference points in teachers' ethical reflections on ‘the best interests of students’. The theoretical framework is built both on teachers' implied meta-ethics and their applied ethical interpretations of these premises. The focus is on the ethics of background beliefs, ethics of guiding rules and principles, and ethics of dilemma managing, together with practical and philosophical perspectives. The data present a narrative interview from a secondary school teacher. The study has applied a qualitative reading guide method to analyse a case from different ethical reference points. The goal is to show how teachers' ethical judgement can be translated into real-world ethics in education and how these reference points can help teachers in their professional development.