Ethical Dilemmas that School Administrators and Teachers Experience: An Analysis Related to Demographic Variables

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyse the levels of ethical dilemmas that the school administrators and the teachers experience, and to document their ethical dilemmas according to demographic variables. In this study, 540 teachers, 60 principal assistants and 30 school principals who participated in the sampling were chosen from public middle schools in Ankara by stratified sampling method. The data were collected by “Ethical Dilemmas Scale at Schools”. The results of the research revealed that school administrators and the teachers experience ethical dilemmas mainly at medium level. Although school administrators’ and teachers’ ethical dilemmas do not change according to their gender, on the part of teachers ethical dilemmas change in relations to their position. Besides, the analyses pointed out that the teachers in the middle-age group experience more ethical dilemmas. According to these results, principal assistants who are mid-senior experience more ethical dilemmas related to behavioural and systemic aspects, mid-senior teachers experience more behavioural and structural ethical dilemmas. The research results are discussed in terms of the situations that cause ethical dilemmas in the context of preventing them.