Ethical conflicts in teaching

This article presents findings from an empirical study of ethical conflicts facing teachers in the Swedish nine-year compulsory school. The aim of the article is two fold--to present the results of teachers' written reports of ethical conflicts and to investigate the specific conditions in teaching causing these ethical conflicts. The method used in the part of the study presented was the critical incident technique. The discussion is focused on teachers' ambiguity in relation to the ethics of caring. Teachers sometimes seem to be ready to abandon the value of caring for children due to the respect of adults. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.