Making the right choices: ethical judgments among educational leaders
| Pages | 396-413 |
| Date | 05 July 2011 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231111146470 |
| Published date | 05 July 2011 |
| Author | Ori Eyal,Izhak Berkovich,Talya Schwartz |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Making the right choices: ethical
judgments among educational
leaders
Ori Eyal, Izhak Berkovich and Talya Schwartz
School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Abstract
Purpose – Scholars have adopted a multiple ethical paradigms approach in an attempt to better
understand the bases upon which everyday ethical dilemmas are resolved by educational leaders. The
aim of this study is to examine the ethical considerations in ethical judgments of aspiring principals.
Design/methodology/approach – To examine the ethical considerations involved in school
leadership decision making, a specially designed ethical perspective instrument was developed that
draws on the multiple ethical paradigms. This exploratory instrument was pre-tested for validity and
reliability among school principals and students of educational administration. The research sample
consisted of 52 participants in principal training programs in Israel.
Findings – Negative correlations were found between choices reflecting values of fairness and those
reflecting utilitarianism and care. In addition, negative correlations were found between choices
reflecting values of community and those reflecting care, critique, and profession. Critique turned out
to be the value most widely adopted by educational leaders to solve ethical dilemmas, followed by care
and profession.
Originality/value – The common notion in the literature is that the various ethics complement one
another. There is, however, little empirical work on ethical judgments of educational practitioners. The
importance of this exploratory research is twofold: first, it examines the extent to which multiple
ethical considerations can be taken into account simultaneously; and second, it identifies the prevailing
values that come into play most often.
Keywords Educationaladministration,Ethics, Justice, Leadership,Professional ethics,Schools, Values,
Decision making,Israel
Paper type Research paper
School principals face moral dilemmas and decisions on a daily basis and are often
required to make difficult choices between competing ethical demands and values.
They are expected to offer solutions tailored to each individual student and community
(Epstein, 1995), while simultaneously embracing powerful government regulations and
adhering to uniform standards (Watson and Supovitz, 2001). School leaders necessarily
maneuver between professional considerations and considerations pertaining to school
prestige and image; such maneuvering is unavoidable due to the public discourse
concerning competition and ma rkets in education (Oplatka, 2 002). Principals
consequently have to respond to conflicting demands of various stakeholders while
maintaining professional integrity.
The conflicting demands frequently reflect societal or interpersonal interests and
take on a political or professional coloring; they may also reflect conflicts within the
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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This paper was presented at the 14th Annual Values and Leadership Conference, State College,
Pennsylvania, October 1-3, 2009.
JEA
49,4
396
Received July 2010
Revised October 2010
Accepted October 2010
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 49 No. 4, 2011
pp. 396-413
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/09578231111146470
organization or between the school and the bureaucracy of the educational system
(Cranston et al., 2006). In these circumstances, where achieving social consensus
regarding the most appropriate solutions is difficult, scholars assert that principals
ultimately make a value-based decision (Begley, 1999; Cranston et al., 2003). It has been
argued that principals’ values influence the decision making process and its
consequences by filtering information and defining the possible alternatives for
resolving the dilemmas (Begley, 1999). Sims and Keon (1999) claim that va lue-based
decisions are not purely rational and must therefore contain some ethical component.
Ethics, in this context, may be viewed as an individual’s personal beliefs regarding
right and wrong, good and bad (Davidson and Griffith, 2000).
In an effort to better understand the bases upon which ethical dilemmas are
resolved and to train educators to deal with such dilemmas better, both researchers and
practitioners have adopted an approach based on multiple ethical paradigms (see, e.g.
Furman, 2003; Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2011; Starratt, 1994, 2003). In this approach,
several values have been identified as common considerations in moral decision
making. These include values reflected in the ethic of care, profession, justice (fairness
and utilitarianism), critique (e.g. Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2011; Starratt, 2003), and
community (Furman, 2003). It has been argued that school leaders can and should
utilize these ethical perspectives simultaneously (e.g. Starratt, 2003; Shapiro and
Stefkovich, 2011).
The adoption of the multiple ethical paradigms approach to dilemmas faced by
principals contrasts with earlier approaches that assumed that ethical dilemmas
should be solved by adopting a single ethical posture. Although the latt er may
facilitate coherent analysis of a situation, it leads to the risk that principals will
embrace dogmatic or mechanistic models of problem-s olving (Starratt, 1994).
Conversely, giving preference to one ethical consideration over others in a given
situation while maintaining a balance among these perspectives, as implied by the idea
of multiple ethical paradigms, might force principals to suggest more complex
solutions. Such solutions are highly significant in helping principals confront their
many challenges and professional commitments while addressing the needs and
demands of a diverse student body and stakeholders (Brazer and Keller, 2006; Shapiro
and Stefkovich, 2011).
It has been asserted that complex solutions are generated in response to the need to
interpret each ethical perspective in terms of each of the others (Starratt, 1994). This
process might lead principals to acknowledge that “each theme implies something of
the other themes” and that “each ethic needs the very strong convictions embedded in
the other” (Starratt, 1994, p. 53), and thus to perceive them as complementary. The
differences and contradictions might also be identified through this process. We
assume that the incompatibilities between the different ethical perspectives lead
principals to reflect on the motivations, goals, and process that guide their ethical
judgment and thus to give precedence to students’ best interest over any other ethical
considerations.
However, little empirical work has been done on prevalent ethical judgments among
educational leaders when they are faced with concrete scenarios. The aim of the
present study, therefore, is twofold: first, to examine the extent to which multiple
ethical considerations can be taken into account simultaneously, and second, to
determine the prevailing values that come into play most often when school leaders
Making the
right choices
397
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