Abstract
This chapter explains the urgent need for educational ethics as a component of teacher development and highlights the crucial role that codes of ethics and conduct can play in the profession of teaching. We argue that if we are to consider teachers as professionals, initial and continuing professional training must provide teachers with the means to develop sophisticated professionality. In relation to this goal, we recommend that codes of conduct and ethics are necessary but not sufficient and hence that they must be made part of a more comprehensive approach. The chapter begins by using the idea of teachers’ role morality to identify teaching as a morally distinct profession in order to appreciate how codes of ethics can contribute to teacher education and professional development. We then offer a case study from Australia to demonstrate trends in the management of teacher misconduct allegations. The criticisms of formal investigation procedures conducted by New South Wales’ Employee Performance and Conduct Directorate are summarised. After presenting evidence on the general absence of codes and ethics education in initial teacher education programs around the globe, to rectify this absence, we offer research-based cautions about the efficacy of ethics education, and a suite of pedagogies for incorporating codes of ethics in teacher education. Managing the multi-directional moral obligations associated with teaching requires specialised professional skills, beliefs and knowledge. Pedagogy should highlight the localised parameters, obligations and expectations of the role, and demonstrate different but strongly justified ways of approaching key professional issues in teaching.
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Forster, D., Maxwell, B. (2022). Using Codes of Professional Ethics and Conduct in Teacher Education: Pitfalls and Best Practice. In: Eaton, S.E., Khan, Z.R. (eds) Ethics and Integrity in Teacher Education. Ethics and Integrity in Educational Contexts, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16922-9_3
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