Ethical considerations of Bedouin Arab school leaders: Negotiating Eurocentric and indigenous decision-making values

Abstract

Ethical considerations have been examined in American and European school management research, but indigenous and comparative aspects have largely been understudied. To better understand the ethical decision-making of indigenous school leaders, the present research aims to examine the ethical considerations of one such minority group – Bedouin Arab educators in Israel – and to compare their ethical decision-making with that of their counterparts in Israel’s Jewish majority. The research utilized the pre-designed multiple Ethical Perspectives Instrument, which requires participants to resolve school dilemmas by choosing one of two given ethical perspectives taken from the following six: fairness, utilitarianism, care, critique, profession and community. Two exploratory studies were carried out: Study 1 examined the ethical judgments of Bedouin bachelor of education (BEd) students ( n = 28), and their perceptions of the ethical judgments of hypothesized Bedouin school leaders. Study 2 compared the ethical judgments of Bedouin ( n = 30) and Jewish ( n = 39) masters (MA) educational administration students. Bedouin undergraduates reported care and critique as their own dominant ethical preferences, but viewed utilitarian considerations as being dominant among hypothesized Bedouin school leaders. Among the graduate students, utilitarian considerations were more dominant among the Bedouin group than the Jewish group. The implications of the findings are discussed.