The context of ethical dilemmas

In line with the aims of Part Two, this chapter focuses on the dynamics of personal and professional ethics (see Figure 1.1). It takes up an intellectual exploration of the ethical tensions and practices that emerged for the authors during their leadership of a professional learning programme for teachers in government-funded schools over a three-year period. The authors present and examine their lived experiences and draw on the writing of teachers involved in the programme to illustrate the ethical dilemmas they confronted and the consequent decision-making approach they adopted.

The authors were educators and researchers within the education faculty of an Australian research-intensive university. They were contracted by the state's Ministry of Education to develop and conduct a professional learning (PL) programme for teachers who were appointed as professional learning leaders in their schools. The contract required the programme leaders to design and implement a PL programme for over 200 primary and secondary teachers, the Leading Professional Learning (LPL) programme. The authors led and implemented the programme over the three years. That work required interprofessional collaboration between the teacher leaders who participated in the programme, the government department that funded the programme and the team of academics that jointly delivered the programme over the three years.

In this chapter, attention is focused on the conditions through which this programme unfolded and, in particular, on the ethical dilemmas that such conditions raised for the authors as ‘contractors’ and researchers. Unlike their previous work, which attends to the experiences of teacher leaders in the programme and its impact on them (Clemans et al, 2010, 2012; Loughran et al, 2011), here the authors reflect on themselves as leaders of the programme and identify the shifting ‘ethical’ ground on which they found themselves standing.

Hardy and Lingard's (2008) analysis of a professional learning programme in another state of Australia suggests that policy imperatives can often override the ways in which the professional principles may drive professional learning programmes designed to support teachers’ professional growth, autonomy and forms of inquiry. Their analysis resonates with the authors’ experiences of leading this programme. However, before progressing with the chapter, it is important to define the use of the term ‘ethical dilemma’.