We have written this research-based book on teachersâ professional ethics to increase understanding of the moral nature of the teaching profession. The book is intended for international readers who want to learn the theoretical frameworks that guide teachersâ ethics and that help them address concrete challenges in their everyday work. Many international scholars have identified Finland as an exemplar country in education and teacher education. However, in recent years, our country has faced increasing challenges in education, mostly in issues related to equality and equity. These issues have impacted teachersâ ethical thinking and conduct, and we have taken them into account in our discussion. Scholars and teachers from different countries can use this book to widen their understanding of teacher ethics and the Finnish educational system.
Finnish education is research-based, which means that in Finland university teachers research what they teach and teach what they research. Kirsi Tirri is a Professor of Education at the University of Helsinki, and she teaches a basic course in school pedagogy each year to 800 pre-service teachers training to work in fields ranging from early education to adult education. She also leads the School Pedagogy Research Group, which includes docents, post-doctoral researchers, and doctoral and masterâs students.
Docent Elina Kuusisto has been Kirsi Tirriâs masterâs and doctoral student and is now a senior member of the School Pedagogy Research Group. She is also a lecturer at Tampere University. In this book, we present our groupâs main research findings related to teachersâ work and ethics. As early as 1996â1999, the Academy of Finland funded Kirsi Tirriâs research on moral dilemmas in schools, and this project produced important publications that have been cited widely and are also referenced in this book. We built another project, Teachersâ Moral Competence in Pedagogical Encounters (MoCo) based on these research findings and developed a Finnish teaching module for the European Union Erasmus project Education for Democratic Intercultural Citizenship (EDIC+), funded for the years 2016â2019. This module is offered every second year to international students in the University of Helsinkiâs masterâs programme Changing Education. In this module, our teaching concentrates on three important factors that affect teachersâ moral behavior: teachersâ ethical sensitivity, purposeful teaching, and teachersâ implicit beliefs (mindsets) (Kuusisto & Tirri, 2019).
Kirsi Tirri was a visiting scholar at the Center on Adolescence at Stanford University, directed by Professor William Damon, between 2007 and 2016.
Kirsi Tirri was a research director at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies during the years 2017â2019. During that time, she designed the Copernicus-project Changing Mindsets about Learning: Connecting Psychological, Educational, and Neuroscientific Evidence. Professor Carol Dweck, from Stanford University, is the Academic Advisor of this project, and we have applied her mindset theory to our multidisciplinary studies on teaching and learning. Junfeng Zhang (2020) compared the mindsets of Chinese and Finnish students and teachers in her doctoral dissertation, and Cristiana Levinthal (2022) has explored the mindsets of Portuguese and Finnish parents related to their childrenâs learning. Teachersâ implicit beliefs (mindsets) influence their ethics and teaching behavior, and it is important to reveal and change those beliefs that are unethical or discriminate against students.
In this book we discuss teachersâ professional ethics using both theoretical and empirical approaches. We provide examples of concrete moral dilemmas in teaching that can be more effectively navigated with the rational principles and guidelines that philosophies of different ethical frameworks can provide. We argue that teachers require ethical skills, especially ethical sensitivity, in order to select the most beneficial course of action concerning diverse students in inclusive education. Moreover, they should be purposeful in their profession to develop the motivation and resilience to continue their demanding but fulfilling work with long-term goals. Moreover, they should acknowledge their implicit beliefs and possible stereotypes to be able to provide equal learning opportunities to their students and to build democratic moral communities in their schools. In this book, ethical sensitivity, purposeful teaching, and incremental beliefs concerning learning are seen as important prerequisites for teachersâ professional ethics. We discuss these aspects with examples from our empirical studies in Finnish schools.
The book can also be used in different countries as a self-study teacher-education course book. For this purpose, we have added questions for readers to reflect upon after each chapter to help them process the different concepts
We would like to thank our previous publishers, especially the Journal of Moral Education, for publishing our articles from 1999 until the present day (Tirri, 1999b; Husu & Tirri, 2001; Malin, Tirri, & Liauw, 2015; Hedayati, Kuusisto, Gholami, & Tirri, 2017c; Manninen, Kuusisto, & Tirri, 2018; Rissanen, Kuusisto, Hanhimäki, & Tirri, 2018; Ronkainen, Kuusisto, Eisenschmidt, & Tirri, 2021). Moreover, we would like to thank the Brill book series Moral Development and Citizenship Education and the series editors Fritz Oser and Wiel Veugelers for publishing our books (Tirri, 2008; Tirri & Nokelainen, 2011; Kuusisto, Ubani, Nokelainen, & Toom, 2021). In addition, Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press has published our book on teachersâ ethics in Finnish (Tirri & Kuusisto, 2019), and we would like to thank the Publishing Director, Leena Kaakinen, for her valuable collaboration. Feedback from Helsinki University Press has also helped us to improve the manuscript of this book. We are grateful for the anonymous three experts who provided valuable suggestions for improvement in their referee comments of our first draft of the manuscript. We would also like to thank Wiel Veugelers and John Bennett for their comments and support in the final modifications of the book.
We dedicate this book to Fritz Oser, the first editor of the series Moral Development and Citizenship Education. His research work on teachersâ ethos and moral education has had an important influence on our thinking and teaching. We hope that this book can continue Fritzâs legacy and honor him as a great scholar and wonderful human being.