Moral Choices/Moral Conflicts: teachers’ self‐perceptions

Abstract This study examines perceptions of school teachers in response to various hypotheses generated in research about teachers as moral agents, by delineation of several themes that emerge throughout the questionnaires and interviews, and through the interpretation of interviews in which the teachers describe their moral selves and their decisions and behaviours as moral educators. Initially, a diverse population of 180 public school teachers responded to questionnaires that probed teachers’ understanding of themselves as moral agents as well as their value compatibility with people in their schools and communities and their perception of freedom to express values and beliefs. Structured interviews with 26 teachers selected from the questionnaire respondents reveal teachers’ perceptions of their actual teaching experiences which they perceived as involving moral values. The core finding of this research is that teachers’ individual moralities shape the choices they make and the conflicts that concern them as they function as moral educators; despite their reluctance to directly teach values, the teachers feel a commitment to share their personal ethos.