A “good” teacher-

teaching ethically
 Professional ethics?

• Professional ethics are implied in practice, not always

visible and mostly unspoken
• Professional ethics seem not to build on knowledge,
but personal feelings and beliefs (Colnerud & Granström, 2002, Thornberg,
2008)

How do all this affect learning professional ethics in

teacher education?
Professional ethics need to be discussed and
problematized through didactic plans and
implementation
 Research questions
• What does it mean to teach ethically (what is
the essence of professional ethics)?
• How do student teachers learn to teach
ethically?
 LIFEWORLD THEORY
LIFE WORLD:
Heidegger, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer
When you direct yourself at something and interpret
it as something, lifeworld is shaped.
Different lifeworlds meet in teaching and affect teaching
Context decides how student teachers need to act
Levinas
The encounter with the Other rises an inevitable
requirement of ethical responsibility
 Methodology
Reflective lifeworld research (RLR)
Find the essential meaning of the phenomenon,
professional ethics
• Openness, bridling, reflecting
• Moving between whole-part
• Systematic analysis, meaning units, cluster
 Method

• Data: Different texts, for example didactic

plans, observations and interviews with ten
students, educating themselves as teachers of
children from preschool up to elementary
school.
• Second to fourth semester
 Essence
Professional ethics mean to intertwine learning and
relationships
Getting to know the children and their needs will
strengthen the opportunities to help them developing.
Professional ethics mean to use experiences to the child
´s best
When meeting children, your own experiences can be
valuable in understanding the child but you should
never let your own feelings or needs take over.
 Essence
Professional ethics mean to include each child
Regardless of the difficulties it means to let the
child participate. You have a responsibility to
include everybody and meet each child on its
own terms.
Professional ethics mean to be an authoritative
but not authoritarian
The authority is created through an atmosphere of
joy, respect and security.
 Essence
Professional ethics mean an ambiguity that demands
responsible decisions.
Uncertainty makes learning of professional ethics
difficult. Student teachers do not always understand
why placement teachers act as they do.
Professional ethics are developed when theory and
practice are entwined in reflection
Students are telling that they sometimes just do but
afterwards think about the situation.
Didethics-model in three steps
Step 1
Ethics:
Attitudes
Values/norms
Meanings of
professional
ethics
Methods:
How do we
actually work to
put together
ethics and
curricula?
Topic:
Curricula
Different levels
Current
 Step 2

Pedagogue Meeting Children

• Preunderstanding • The planning is • Preunderstanding

• Responsibility transformed
• Curricula and • Implementation
professional • Children and
ethics are pedagogue as
interwoven in a agents
planning with
suitable methods
 Step 3

Transformation
in practice
Didethical planning Reflection
meeting the
children
 Learning to teach ethically
Dispositions
– self-awareness
– what values do I express in my actions?
– learning in practice
Judgment
– balancing act
– context
– learning in practice
Reflection
– self-reflection
 Thank you for your attention!

marita.cronqvist@hb.se

QUESTIONS?