ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the links between the ethical principles that underpin behaviour in schools, and how these apply at department and classroom levels. It asks where these principles emanate from and how they get translated into behaviour. The text draws on examples drawn from real incidents. The reader is invited to think through several scenarios taken from professional life, and to begin to generate the kinds of questions that are needed to interrogate ethical dilemmas regarding in-school behaviour by staff and students. The relationships between school climate, ethos and ethics are considered. There is a look at the notion of sanctions. Some ethical principles are established concerning behaviour of all staff and students towards one another. While the issue of what makes effective class management is touched on, this is not the main thrust of the chapter; rather, it examines the dilemmas that arise when class management does not work well and the ethical bases that underpin class management. The chapter looks at some constituents of an ethical school. The point is made that a key component of good class management is that lessons are interesting. The chapter provides systematic opportunities to begin to de-construct events in order to explore their ethical dimensions.
