The Opinions of Preschool Teachers about Ethical Principles

Abstract

Can we fulfill our responsibilities and obligations while we are working? Today, professional ethics is a necessity for each occupation. As teachers are directly responsible for children's growth, professional ethics and ethical decision making are important for them. Although many countries, particularly the United States, have prepared ethics codes for preschool teachers, there are none listed for this group in Turkey. In this study, 29 preschool teachers from Samsun, Turkey were interviewed about preschool teachers' professional ethical principles by using semi-structured questions. Content analysis was used to determine the opinions of the teachers after the interviews, and an ethics code list was prepared. Each different opinion was an item in the list and frequency values were calculated. Thus, the first ethics code framework was created for Turkish preschool teachers.