Dilemmas In Teaching Research Articles

Teaching teachers how to not solve moral dilemmas

ABSTRACT Our survey of literature on moral dilemmas in teaching reveals that scholars declare the need to unequivocally resolve them yet refrain from doing so. This phenomenon is rooted in falure to distinguish between the different moral conflicts. The methods of resolving abstract hypothetical dilemmas, advocated but not implemented by the scholars, are poorly suited to deal with conflicts involving social pressure and high-stakes consequences for the parties involved, like most of the conflicts that teachers report. Thus, textbooks invite teachers to resolve dilemmas on their own through reflection and dialogue, beyond the limits which Habermasian ethics of dialogue allows. The scholarship licenses lax attitudes towards commitment to professional and ethical standards by appealing to the ethics of care. It appeals to outdated versions of ethics of care that posit care in opposition to the ethics of duties, no longer employed in ethics of nursing and other caring professions.

“The power of open dialogue”: Using normative case studies to facilitate ethical dilemmas discussions among school teachers

North American classroom teachers routinely face ethical challenges yet are seldom given opportunities to discuss this aspect of their practice with colleagues in professional development (PD). This paper analyzes data collected from 58 educators in a large American school district who participated in a PD that used a normative case study (NCS) to support discussions of ethical dilemmas in education. We find that while trusting relationships can mitigate uncomfortable discussions with colleagues, even one-time facilitated NCS PDs provide promising supports for perspective-sharing and internal reflection on ethical dilemmas in teaching.

The moral teacher in global transition: The 2022 Kohlberg Memorial Lecture

ABSTRACT According to Kohlberg, a moral teacher is an independent moral agent capable of addressing moral dilemmas based on general principles of justice. In addition to moral reasoning, teachers require competencies in moral sensitivity, moral motivation, and the implementation of morality. In the current period of global transition, moral sensitivity in teaching is particularly emphasized along with the skills to identify culture-invariant and culture-dependent moral factors. In this lecture, the role of the moral teacher is explored in the context of current global crises and everyday moral dilemmas in teaching. Purposefulness and professional ethics are identified as important assets for a moral teacher during the current global transition.

The potential of Lesson Study project as a tool for dealing with dilemmas in university teaching

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential of Lesson Study (LS) as a tool for dealing with dilemmas in university teaching.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is the result of a LS project which was developed over two academic years (2015-2016 and 2016-2017) in the Faculties of Education and Teacher Training at the Universities of Cantabria and Oviedo (Spain). The research asked the question “How can better learning be achieved?” The starting point for the research methodology was the identification and analysis of teaching dilemmas. The whole process was based on the triangulation of perspectives through the collection of data using techniques such as peer observation, focus groups, interviews, and the writing of the Teacher’s final report. The methodology the authors used was inspired by the Student Voice “movement.”FindingsThe findings show that the potential of LS methodology for professional development in higher education is very promising, enabling teachers to deal with the questions raised by practice collaboratively, broaden their professional knowledge, introduce improvements, and establish new ways of understanding the teaching profession based on a collegial approach.Originality/valueLS methodology is beginning to be known in Spain. Developments have only taken place very recently and there are still few experiences within the university context. It is not common practice for teaching in higher education to become a public space for reflection and research breaking from the traditional isolation between teachers and incorporating the voices of students.

“Can I have a grade bump?” The Contextual Variables and Ethical Ideologies that Inform Everyday Dilemmas in Teaching

Educators are regularly confronted with moral dilemmas for which there are no easy solutions. Increasing course sizes and program enrolments, coupled with a new consumerist attitude towards education, have only further exacerbated the quantity and quality of students’ requests for special academic consideration (Macfarlane, 2004). Extensions, late submissions, and grade bumps—once rare—are now commonplace. However, there is very little in the pedagogical literature that addresses these everyday dilemmas. In a culture of transparency, unspoken policies that address these requests are the form of learner consideration that is the least transparent to students and educators alike. Here we explore some of the variables that contribute to the complexity of these dilemmas, and the ethical ideologies that can inform their resolution. Our goal is not to provide best practices, but rather to facilitate reflection about how individuals make these decisions. The idiosyncratic nature of these decisions can be framed as a reflection of different ethical ideologies, and we describe one approach to framing individual ethical ideologies from the business literature. Finally, we consider whether faculty should be making these decisions at all, using the centralization of academic integrity (cf. Neufeld & Dianda, 2007) as a model, and explore its parallels with issues around ethical dilemmas in teaching.

Dilemmas in language teaching and teacher education

The article analyses disappointing data concerning the status of the teaching profession and teachers’ self-perceptions revealed in recent TALIS, EURYDICE and EUROSTAT reports. Reasons for teachers’ difficulties are then analysed vis-a-vis criteria for the evaluation of quality in education. Emphasis is given to decision-making processes and the type of dilemmas encountered by teacher trainers working in the academic context and foreign language teachers employed in school systems of EU member states. Implications for educational policies of the future are sought and an attempt is made to examine the role of enabling institutions such as the Council of Europe and the European Centre for Modern Languages in Graz.

Moral stress in teaching practice

The purpose of this article is to study whether moral stress is a phenomenon relevant to teaching practice and which may make a significant contribution to understanding why teachers repeatedly reported feeling burdened by work. Moral stress can be caused by acting in conflict with one’s own conscience, e.g. when one knows the right thing to do but institutional constraints make it difficult to act in a way that is consistent with one’s morals. The method used in this study is critical incident technique focusing ethical dilemmas in teaching. The findings add a phenomenon to previous research of moral stress in other professions; moral stress can be caused not only by external regulations, but also by internal moral imperatives in conflict with one another.

Investigating dilemmas in teaching: towards a new form of pedagogical scholarship

This article investigates five dilemmas that emerge from analysis of a brief episode of classroom practice: issues concerning the design and management of the classroom discussion, the use of drama in teaching, teacher handling of pupil disturbances, and the advantages and drawbacks of competition. We argue that such dilemma-driven analysis is missing from current pedagogical scholarship, in which analyses tend to be theory-driven and narrower in their scope. Our aims are to (a) do justice to the richness and complexity of classroom activity and the work of teaching; (b) illustrate a means of working with representations of practice that is likely to facilitate the development of teacher professional judgment; and (c) uncover some of the central dilemmas experienced by Israeli primary teachers. The data are drawn from a sixth grade Hebrew language lesson in an Israeli state primary school.

Ethical dilemmas in teaching and nursing: the Israeli case

This article explores a cross‐occupational approach for dealing with ethical dilemmas by comparing teaching and nursing. Findings indicate more shared patterns of ethical dilemmas (such as caring for needs for others versus following formal codes) than dilemmas specific to teaching (e.g., advancing universal values versus advancing knowledge) or nursing (e.g., patient modesty versus hospital policy). The large number of shared dilemmas suggests that results can be applied to a curriculum devoted to ethical dilemmas in high schools and universities in order to better prepare students to handle them. Formal discussions of these dilemmas can help define the roles of these occupations, thereby improving their status.

Education for ethically sensitive teaching in critical incidents at school

The purpose of the present study was to identify and investigate critical incidents at school that require ethically sensitive teaching. This kind of knowledge is needed in teacher education to prepare future teachers for their profession. The data included narrative interviews with 12 teachers from four urban schools in Finland. Critical incidents were defined as issues or situations in teachers' work that produce ethical reflection and moral emotions. The critical incidents experienced by urban schoolteachers were analysed and compared with earlier studies on ethical dilemmas in teaching. Concrete examples of these incidents were reported which contain teachers' emotional expressions. Four main categories of critical incidents were identified. These were related to the principal, students and families, teachers, and the school community. Teachers reported commitment, caring, co‐operation and respect as the most dominant emotional expressions in these situations. These emotional expressions reflected ethical sensitivity skills, especially in reading and expressing emotions. Based on our study we suggest recommendations for teacher educators on how education for ethically sensitive teaching can be promoted.

Ethical Dilemmas in Teaching: The Israeli Case

Ethical Dilemmas in Teaching: The Israeli Case

Care and Responsibility in 'The Best Interest of the Child': Relational voices of ethical dilemmas in teaching

This paper discusses ethical dilemmas in early childhood education as identified by kindergarten and elementary school teachers ( n = 26). Ethical dilemmas are investigated in the theoretical framework of virtue epistemology. The moral stances of care and responsibility are identified as basic elements in teachers' professional morality. The empirical findings present conflicts between teachers and parents, collegial conflicts between teachers, and inter-institutional conflicts in the community. The method used in the study is a relational reading of teachers' narratives. Interpretative accounts are created to give room for both care and responsibility voices in teachers' written reports. The analysis of the data reveals that the ethical dilemmas in early childhood education are very relational and deal with competing interpretations of 'the best interest of the child'. Teachers have taken the moral stance of care by identifying the ethical conflict. However, the responsible professional action has been more difficult for them to accomplish. Most of the time, discussions have not produced the desired results. Ethical conflicts in teaching invite teachers to consider the moral relevance of each dilemma by taking the perspectives of the involved parties.

Case‐based pedagogy as a context for collaborative inquiry in the Philippines

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate the potential for using case‐based pedagogy as a context for collaborative inquiry into the teaching and learning of elementary science. The context for this study was the elementary science teacher preparation program at West Visayas State University on the the island of Panay in Iloilo City, the Philippines. In this context, triple linguistic conventions involving the interactions of the local Ilonggo dialect, the national language of Philipino (predominantly Tagalog) and English create unique challenges for science teachers. Participants in the study included six elementary student teachers, their respective critic teachers and a research team composed of four Filipino and two U.S. science teacher educators. Two teacher‐generated case narratives serve as the centerpiece for deliberation, around which we highlight key tensions that reflect both the struggles and positive aspects of teacher learning that took place. Theoretical perspectives drawn from assumptions underlying the use of case‐based pedagogy and scholarship surrounding the community metaphor as a referent for science education curriculum inquiry influenced our understanding of tensions at the intersection of re‐presentation of science, authority of knowledge, and professional practice, at the intersection of not shared language, explicit moral codes, and indigenization, and at the intersection of identity and dilemmas in science teaching. Implications of this study are discussed with respect to the building of science teacher learning communities in both local and global contexts of reform. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 502–528, 2001

Exploring novice and experienced elementary teachers' science teaching and learning referents through videocases

In recent years, science educators have become increasingly interested in the use of classroom cases as instructional material, vehicles for inservice education and as raw data for research on teacher cognition (e.g., Abell et al., 1996; Colburn & Tillotson, 1998; Fetters, 1997). Although wide-spread interest in classroom videocases is a relatively new phenomena, case-based instruction has been a tradition in fields such as law, medicine and business for many years (Christensen, 1987; Neufeld & Chong, 1984). In teacher education, classroom cases have been used for more than 50 years. An early text by Waples (1927),Problems in Classroom Method, consisted of 40 cases highlighting classroom problems with solutions proposed by inservice teachers. As the use of classroom cases in teacher education have evolved over the past 50 years, a variety of formats have emerged to illustrate problems or dilemmas in teaching and learning. These formats have included the critical incident, protocols, vignettes, simulations, and more recently, videocases.

Reviews

Chris M. Anson, Lesley K. Cafarelli, Carol Rutz and Michelle R. Weis (eds) Dilemmas in Teaching: Cases for Collaborative Faculty ReflectionPatricia Senn Breivik Student Learning in the Information AgeBarbara E. Walvoord and Virginai Johnson Anderson Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and AssessmentWilliam E. Campbell and Karl A. Smith (eds) New Paradigms for College TeachingAnn Intili Morey and Margie K. Kitano Multicultural Course Transformation in Higher EducationFrancis X. S. J. Clooney Hindu Wisdom for All God's ChildrenStephen R. Haynes Holocaust Education and the Church‐Related College: Restoring Ruptured TraditionsWarren A. Nord Religion and American Education: Rethinking a National DilemmaD. G. Hart and R. Albert Mohler, Jr (eds) Theological Education in the Evangelical TraditionPatrick W. Carey and Earl C. S. J. Muller (eds) Theological Education in the Catholic Tradition: Contemporary Challenges

The status of ethnic diversity in American classrooms

Abstract We describe the current situation in many American schools today as new waves of immigrants from all over the globe come to take up residence in the United States and enroll their children in public schools. Key terms in the area are presented and then an overview of public policy, legislation and rulings affecting educating ethnically diverse children in American schools is detailed. Further, we point out that by examining the situation and concerns of multicultural/multiracial education in other societies such as Britain, we gain new insights on American problems and dilemmas in teaching in ethnically diverse classrooms.

Role Dilemmas in Student Teaching

Role Dilemmas in Student Teaching