Abstract:

In most countries, teachers are not free to disregard institutionally-set mainstream managerial goals in the age of accountability, consumer-oriented instrumental paradigms of educational policies, technological approach to education, international educational competition, and recent attacks on the teaching profession. Struggling from the pressure from school authorities to deliver test results, teachers often have to ignore the values of pedagogy. The authors of this article are driven by the belief that something could be done to restore the role of pedagogy in teaching, and with that schools will become far better places for children than what has evolved with a primary focus on testing.

The qualitative study is based on the premise that any professional activity is grounded in the ethical norms and principles that direct its organization and outcomes. The study employed the method of narrative analysis that promotes the formation and preserving of social-cognition processes (Barklay, 1996). The researchers examined narratives of American in-service teachers who were graduate students (N=12) in one of the Midwestern universities. The participants were reflecting in their university class on the ethical values of teaching. ​​ Evident from their narratives, the majority of the participants, even when mentioning ethical values ​​of a teacher, did not fully and thoroughly understand them; some of them felt difficulties in describing the essence and significance of these values for students. Our task in the study was to develop students' understandings and personal attitudes to ethical principles and values, which, in the context of modern conceptual approaches, would stimulate teachers to support and help students, create conditions for their development.

Based on the analysis of empirical data, the paper offers sociologically informed theoretical consideration on the topic of ethical pedagogy by challenging the trends of current reforms that weaken the effectiveness of public education and the conceptualization of teaching as a highly complex practice worthy of our utmost respect. The analysis also showed social variation in students’ psychological processes used for understanding and explaining the same value and a need for reflective metacognition that can reveal factors, which influence teacher thinking before decision making. Gender differences in students’ narratives demonstrated the need for enhanced instruction in teacher education. The findings highlighted an urgent need to educate in-service and pre-service teachers in critical and reflexive inquiry, analysis and in the essence of ethical values necessary for effective pedagogical activity and creative approaches to pedagogical work, demands for self, and the desire for professional self-improvement. Employing phenomenological and dialogical approach to analysis, the authors identify the main ethical norms of teaching, pedagogical values and offer practical recommendations for their attainment for educators

Keywords:

In-service teachers, narrative analysis, pedagogical ethics.