Perceptions of Moral Agency

Research on moral development has been dominated bythe work of Lawrence Kohlberg and James Rest who havesought to construct and validate a universal model ofmoral development. Compared with other professions,teachers have shown disturbingly low levels of moralreasoning based on either Kohlberg's Moral JudgmentInventory (MJI) or Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT).This study was designed to test the hypothesis thatteachers' low mean-scores do not give an accuratepicture of their moral development. A Delphi studywas conducted, followed by interviews to gain a broadunderstanding of the perceptions and experience of agroup of preschool special needs teachers. It wasfound that these teachers face a wide range of moralchallenges, use very little moral language, feel isolated, and have few options for assistance in resolving moral dilemmas. The participants showed a marked consequentialist approach to moral reasoning, which helps explain their performance on tests based on Kohlberg's model and there was some evidence of anethic of care. These findings should be of interestto faculty of teacher education programs and those inapplied ethics.