Author(s): Seda BANLI Fatma KAYA Betül GÃLERYÃZ ADAMHASAN
The notion of moral dilemma also termed as knots (Wagner, 1987) in some research has gradually gained much popularity in recent decades. Everyday teachers inevitably find themselves in the situations where they question their values, ethics, and thought processes with respect to the norms of their educational settings “since the nature of the teaching tasks lends itself to being of an ethical and moral nature because of the complexity of the teacher tasks” (Melo, 2003: 179). Based on this view, the present study aims to investigate moral dilemmas of EFL instructors through their critical incidents and to show how they struggle with the processes of ethical conflicts and moral dilemmas by comparing their perceptions, real life events, solving strategies, and reasoning process behind their decisions. Participants (n=30) consisted of English language instructors having different teaching experience from diverse EFL contexts in Turkey. Data was collected through a semi-structured interview method. The analysis of the collected data revealed that issues related to grading or assessment were the most frequently encountered incidents that created moral dilemma for the participants. While single-handed problem solving strategy was the most preferred solving strategy by the participants, majority of the participants reported that they prioritized the best interest of the student.
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