Understanding ethical drift in professional decision making: dilemmas in practice
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Date
2021-11-29
Open Access Location
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Informa UK Limited trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Rights
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Abstract
Educational psychologists face challenging decisions around ethical dilemmas to uphold the rights of all children. Due to finite government resources for supporting all learners, one of the roles of educational psychologists is to apply for this funding on behalf of schools and children. Tensions can emerge when unintended ethical dilemmas arise through decisions that compromise their professional judgement. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study around educational psychologists’ understandings and concerns around ethical dilemmas they faced within New Zealand over the past 5 years. The study set out to explore how educational psychologists manage the ethical conflicts and inner contradictions within their work. The findings suggest that such pressures could influence evidence-based practice in subtle ways when in the course of decision making, practitioners experienced some form of ethical drift. There is seldom one correct solution across similar situations. Although these practitioners experienced discomfort in their actions they rationalised their decisions based on external forces such as organisational demands or funding formulas. This illustrates the relational, contextual, organisational and personal influences on how and when ‘ethical drift’ occurs.
Description
© 2021 The Author(s)
Keywords
Evidence-based practice, inclusion, ethical drift, ethical dilemmas, educational psychologists
Citation
Bourke R, Pullen R, Mincher N. (2021). Understanding ethical drift in professional decision making: dilemmas in practice. International Journal of Inclusive Education.