Kindergarten Teachers’ Professional Ethical Decision-making In Institutional Situation

Early childhood education is essentially an ethical practice.Kindergarten teachers have to make various decisions that require ethical consideration in their daily work.The extreme asymmetries between kindergarten teachers and children in identity,power,and status make kindergartens as a place where ethical misconduct occurs frequently.For the discussion of kindergarten teachers’ ethical misconduct,most of researchers tend to hold the subjectivism view that professional ethics is the purview of the individual kindergarten teacher,and unethical behavior is committed by the individual kindergarten teacher,ignoring the constraints and threats of the real situation.The ethical decision-makings of kindergarten teachers generally take place in the “given conditions” of the formal organizational structure of kindergarten,while the kindergarten system provides cognitive models and behavioral guidelines for kindergarten teachers.Like any institutional arrangements of human society,the kindergarten system is neither flawless nor perfect.Therefore,this study aims to explore the ethical decision-making logic of kindergarten teachers who under the system field from the perspective of system and based on the position of interaction between system and subject.For the purpose of understanding and the need of description,the researcher used the methods of participatory observation,narrative interview and physical collection based on qualitative research orientation,to conduct a three-month participatory observation in two kindergartens,interviewed 26 kindergarten teachers,and collected materials including kindergarten system documents and programme of activities.Categorical analysis are employed to analyze the research data of ethical issue or dilemmas under institutional elements,and situational analysis are employed to analyze the research data of autonomy and professional ethical decision-making of kindergarten teachers.The findings are as follows:Firstly,kindergarten teachers are an institutionalized beings,and the kindergarten system provides both limits and freedoms of education activities for kindergarten teachers.Professional autonomy is a prerequisite for kindergarten teachers’ professional ethical decision-making,but in the institutionalized kindergarten life,the kindergarten teachers’ professional autonomy is heavily squeezed,which eliminates the professional ethical decision-making space of kindergarten teachers,making kindergarten teachers’ professional ethical decision-making in an awkward situation as “riding on the wall of the system”.Secondly,the kindergarten system is a key factor that induces professional ethical issues or dilemmas of kindergarten teachers.Specifically,under the influence of the utilitarian development tendency of kindergartens,the regulative institutional elements,which are mainly administrative power rules and supervision and evaluation system,have triggered the conflicts between the organizational responsibility of kindergarten teachers to be responsible for “upper” and the ethical responsibility of kindergarten teachers to be responsible for “lower”,resulting in ethical crisis against“children-orientated”.The normative institutional elements represented by safety management system,daily life system,and routine management system induce risks of restricting children’s freedom in the name of “protection”,ignoring children’s rhythm in the name of “order” and disciplining children’s body in the name of “well behaved” respectively,which leads to the ethical crisis of violating children’s autonomy.The cultural-cognitive institutional elements represented by “good kid”schema,“collectivism” schema and “favor and face” schema trigger conflicts between hierarchical differentiation and equal respect,between equal treatment and difference equality,and between differential justice and moral justice respectively,which lead to ethical crisis of violating “justice of care and education”.Thirdly,in the system-induced ethical problems or dilemmas,kindergarten teachers’ ethical decisions showed diversity under the moderating effect of their professional conscience.Specifically,kindergarten teachers’ professional ethical decision-making is mainly derived from three logics containing convention-oriented,system-oriented and professional conscience-oriented.And it is displayed four types,including perfunctory type which means unethical and anti-institutional,obedience type which means unethical and pro-institutional,expedient type which means ethical and anti-institutional and creative type which means ethical and pro-institutional.Fourthly,unethical decisions violating children’s interests mainly cause negative moral emotion experience,while ethical decisions protecting children’s interests may cause both negative and positive moral emotion experience.Positive moral emotion experience mainly poses a positive feedback role on the next ethical decision,while negative moral experience may play a positive or negative feedback role.However,there are also some kindergarten teachers who have no moral emotional experience due to the lack of ethical sensitivity.Lastly,reflecting on the professional ethical decision-making behavior of kindergarten teachers in institutional contexts,the interest structure in the regulatory institutional elements has virtually promoted the utilitarian ethical thinking,which makes it difficult for kindergarten teachers to adhere to the ethical principle of“children-orientated”.Normative institutional elements in implementation encourage“ruleism” approaches to decision-making and impede the “situationism” practical wisdom needed to respect the autonomy of young children.Cultural-cognitive institutional elements contain the value of “ethics of everyday life” and interfere with the realization of the value of “professional ethics” of care and education justice.In conclusion,it can be further confirmed that: firstly,the institutional environment has a positive or negative restrict,that is,professional ethical decisions are not entirely the authority of individual kindergarten teachers.Some institutional elements of kindergartens may lead to ethical conflicts and hinder kindergarten teachers from realizing their ethical responsibilities centered on the interests of children.Secondly,the harmfulness or protection of the system for children depends on kindergarten teachers,that is,although the strict system limits the professional ethical decisions of kindergarten teachers,it does not completely blockade the space of professional ethical decision-making,and it depends on the professional conscience of kindergarten teachers to blind to ethical issues,give up ethical vision or firm ethical responsibility;Thirdly,although it is extremely necessary to improve the institutional environment of kindergartens,the system can never be perfect.Stimulating and caring for the professional conscience of kindergarten teachers is the key to make them adhere to the ethical responsibility with children’s interests as the core under the given institutional conditions.