ABSTRACT
From Alan Tom’s initial identi cation of teaching as a moral craft (1984) to David Hansen’s exploration of the moral heart of teaching (2001), from Goodlad et al.’s recognition of the moral dimensions of teaching (1990), to empirical studies that vividly reveal these dimensions (Jackson et al., 1993; Richardson & Fenstermacher, 2001), the academic and professional literature has increasingly illustrated how the moral aspects and complexities of K-12 teaching can be neither separated from its technical elements nor, worse, ignored as somehow extraneous to the central mission of education. Some connect these moral nuances, embedded in the daily life of classrooms and schools, to the professional role of the teacher and the ethical implications for professionalism more generally in teaching (Bergem, 1993; Campbell, 2003; Carr, 2000; Oser and Althof 1993; Sockett 1993; Strike & Soltis 1992; Strike & Ternasky, 1993). Within a context that integrates consideration of the moral nature of teaching with applied professional ethics in teaching, this chapter explores the concept of teacher professionalism as being inseparable from what I de ne as the teacher’s ethical knowledge. This knowledge relates to both how teachers conduct themselves in morally appropriate ways and how they engage in moral education.
