Second-language teachers’ moral knowledge base: a comparison between experienced and less experienced, male and female practitioners

Abstract

The second-language teacher education community has become increasingly interested in the moral dimensions of teaching. Herein ELT practitioners’ ‘moral knowledge base’, as a window into their mental lives, has not received the attention it deserves. The present study was conducted to document likely differences between the frequencies of pedagogical and moral thought units of male and female, experienced and less experienced teachers, and to look deeply into participants’ moral thought categories. Forty teachers participated in the project. Data were collected through the use of stimulated recall protocol. The analyses of the data show that there are differences in the number of pedagogical and moral thoughts teachers recall. As to teachers’ moral knowledge base, seven moral categories emerged with ‘Teachers as Moral Agents’ being the most frequently recalled category. Gender and experience were found to affect the order and the frequency of the thought categories teachers produced in different groups. The top thought categories for experienced and less experienced, female and male teachers were identified to be Student Problem, Teachers as Moral Agents, Student Problem and Student Manner respectively.