Ethics in the teaching profession – the perception of students in initial training

Teaching is a complex profession, carried out during times of multiple challenges facing the contemporary world, where there is concern not only with the cognitive dimension and intellectuality, but also with the emerging need to train new generations in a human fashion. The importance of ethics in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Luísa Carvalho, Evangelina Bonifácio, Adelaide Proença
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-01-01
Series:Social Sciences and Humanities Open
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291125002827
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Summary:Teaching is a complex profession, carried out during times of multiple challenges facing the contemporary world, where there is concern not only with the cognitive dimension and intellectuality, but also with the emerging need to train new generations in a human fashion. The importance of ethics in initial teacher training should be upheld because the teaching profession is an eminently ethical and human endeavor.It was in this context that the research project ''Ethics in initial teacher training - The view of undergraduate students in Elementary Education'' emerged. The research was carried out with undergraduate students in Elementary Education from two Portuguese higher education institutions, with the aim of understanding students' awareness of ethical issues during initial teacher training. Data was collected through the application of a questionnaire survey, in which 141 (of the 252) students took part. In this article, and within the framework of the research project, the aim, by comparing two higher education institutions and year attended, is to: a) identify the importance attributed by students to different ethical challenges relating to teachers’ professional practice; b) understand students' views on the integration of ethics in the Elementary Education degree study plan; c) understand students' perspective on how teachers in the Elementary Education degree course can demonstrate ethics in the school environment.The findings point to the importance attached to a variety of ethical challenges. Participants generally believed that ethics should be taught as part of the study plan, and also identified different ways for their teachers to demonstrate ethics in ways other than direct teaching. Students seemed to recognize the relevance of ethics in teacher training.
ISSN:2590-2911