Ethical Decisions at the Heart of Teaching: making sense from a constructivist perspective

Abstract

Abstract The ethical dimensions of teaching involve complex decisions found in the sense‐making process and deeply embedded in the professional lives of teachers. These decisions take the form of ethical dilemmas which catalyse internal conflict within teachers and lack clear paths to solution. In our efforts to understand the ethical dimensions of teacher knowledge we have moved outside the traditional premises of moral philosophy. A constructivist epistemology serves as our interpretive framework and informs our questions about the nature of ethical dilemmas encountered in teaching. We have applied constructivism to the development of a theory of referents as a means of insight into the ethical dimensions of science teaching and learning. This interpretive study of a middle school science teacher examines how key referents such as constructivism, emancipatory learning, control and social expectations influence the nature of practice in the context of teaching science.