| An era of high-stakes testing and public accountability increases the importance of professional ethics and morality in education. Instruction in professional ethics should be a significant part of the preparation of early childhood practitioners. Young children's vulnerability requires protection and professional values affect the decisions practitioners make during practice. The primary purposes of this study were to ascertain in Virginia: (a) if early childhood practitioner preparation programs provide for instruction in professional ethics, (b) how early childhood practitioner preparation programs incorporate professional ethics instruction, and (c) what incentives or barriers influence professional ethics instruction. A two phase descriptive study was conducted with quantitative and qualitative analytic methods employed to investigate seven research questions.; Phase One entailed a mail survey to all early childhood practitioner preparation programs at two-year and four-year institutions in Virginia. The survey requested information regarding the program goals, core professional courses, course objectives, type of professional ethics instruction, use of the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct, and commonly used textbooks. Results of this phase described practitioner preparation programs in Virginia as acknowledging the value of professional ethics instruction, but its presence within these programs was implicit, undocumented, and arbitrary. Quantitative analysis investigating a relationship between institution type and accreditation status with level of professional ethics instruction was inconclusive. Examination of fifteen commonly used textbooks revealed that a discussion of ethics and professionalism were missing from all but one textbook. Phase Two involved an in-depth study of five selected higher education institutions (two two-year and three four-year institutions), with interviews of thirteen full-time early childhood faculty members as the primary data. The qualitative data analysis provided more detailed information about professional ethics instruction in practice, suggested possible reasons for discrepancies in the reported information, and identified some incentives and barriers to inclusion of professional ethics. Limitations of the study, implications for practice, and further research avenues were discussed, including a national study of professional ethics instruction in early childhood practitioner preparation programs, refinements in instrumentation and data collection. |
