Strategies School Practitioners Report They Would Use to Resist Pressures to Practice Unethically

Abstract

This study focused on strategies school psychologists and special education teachers report they would use to resist administrative pressures to practice unethically. Data came from a national sample of 141 school psychologists and 130 special education teachers who responded to a survey by predicting how they and others would respond to four ethical dilemmas. Qualitative analysis of data revealed four strategies that were generalized across all dilemmas. These general strategies were: preventing dilemmas from occurring; educating and/or threatening others; involving others in solutions; and combining strategies into more comprehensive responses. Qualitative analysis also revealed three strategies that were suggested for only some of the dilemmas (dilemma-specific strategies). Both the general and dilemma-specific strategies appear potentially useful to practitioners seeking ways of resisting pressures to practice unethically.

Key Words:

• Ethical dilemmas
• ethical decision-making
• administrative directives
• school psychologists
• special education teachers