Principals' sensitivities to ethical issues that arise in the education of disabled students
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine principals' and special education teachers' responses to dilemmas in special education, using themes adapted from the ethics of justice, care, and critique. Principals and special education teachers from six suburban New York City school districts completed the Special Education Cases Questionnaire (SECQ) and an information sheet that requested personal and educational data. The data collected were subjected to a series of 2 x 2 x 2 analysis of variance procedures, with subjects' responses to ethical dilemmas in the education of disabled children as the dependent variable and gender (male or female), level (elementary or secondary), and role (principal or special education teacher) as the independent variables. Role emerged as a significant variable on the total ethic of justice, with principals having a greater sensitivity to issues of justice than did special education teachers. Gender emerged as a significant variable on the total ethic of care, with females having a greater sensitivity to caring issues than did males. This finding supports the historical assumptions of the differences between the nature of females and males. The analysis of variance indicated no other significant main effect, first degree interaction effect, or second degree interaction effect for all other mean scores on the total ethics of justice, care, and critique. There seemed to be a tendency for secondary principals and special education teachers to have a greater sensitivity to issues of justice than did elementary principals and special education teachers.
Subject Area
School administration|Special education|Educational theory
Recommended Citation
Strax, Marshall, "Principals' sensitivities to ethical issues that arise in the education of disabled students" (1992). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9304526.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9304526
