An Evidence-Based Approach to the Practice of Educational Leadership

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

An Evidence-Based Approach to the Practice of Educational

LeadershipFirst Edition

Ronald W. ReboreAngela L. E. WalmsleySaint Louis University

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Chapter 11: Ethical Considerations in Evidence-Based Leadership


Instructional Objectives

• To learn how to create a culture of evidence that will support the ethical practice of educational leadership

• To provide information that can be used by an educational leadership to create a personal and professional code of ethics


Instructional Objectives

• To explain how educational leaders can develop evidence-based ethical strategies that support the positive use of the power of office

• To understand the different approaches to evidence-based ethical decision making.


The Evidence-Based Nature of Ethics

• Human conduct emanates from experience and relationships.

• Reflection on the best way to maintain ethical relations will become productive if reflection is driven by the question:

“What does it mean to be a human being?”


The Evidence-Based Nature of Ethics

• The issues that ethical analysis explores are significant because they provide evidence for decision making and require reflection upon human values.

• Ethical analysis offers administrators a unique kind of perspective on educational leadership issues.


Approaching Ethics

• Two ways to study ethics in educational leadership:

1. Deontological approach: right and wrong of a given action

2. Teleological approach: the goals of an action in terms of good and bad


Approaching Ethics

Worldview

• Evidence is the context within which ethical norm are identified.

• Evidence consists of: though, reflection, and liberty and operationalized through experience, understanding, and judgment.


Approaching Ethics

• Classical worldview: the world is a finished product and ethical principles will remain forever valid

• Contemporary worldview: the world is dynamic and evolving and the path to right conduct is through induction from experiences


Approaching Ethics

Natural Law• Discoverable through discourse, research,

and reflection upon humanity• There are levels within natural law• Deliberation concerning natural law must

take into account the social dimension of humanity

• It allows people to enter into rational debate concerning our collective humanity.


Approaching Ethics

Social Ethics

• Good people may be involved in structures that inflict injustices on others.

• Unethical actions can have a power that reaches beyond the individual and influence other to be unethical.

• People inherit the unethical actions of past generations.


Approaching Ethics

• Changing unethical institutions is difficult.

• Personal and social unethicality must be understood in relation to each other.

• Unethicality is: external, inherited, overbearing, seductive, freely chosen, incurs blame, powerful, fascinating, additive, and alluring.


Approaching Ethics

Human Consequences• Unethical decision progressively restricts a

person’s freedom and can become internalized.

• Self-centeredness results in isolation and loneliness, and anxiety.

• An ethical administrator should integrate attitudes, powers, and tendencies towards ethical relationships with others.


Approaching Ethics

The Virtues• Prudence, justice, fortitude, and

temperance are the most important virtues for an administrator.

• Virtues are:– Qualities that shape the very core of who

people are as persons– Flexible and adaptable to the milieu within

which people must act


Approaching Ethics

– Shape human inclinations and dispositions to act in a certain way

– Integrate a person’s emotional and intellectual life in such a way as to facilitate arriving at ethical judgments with ease

– Must be cultivated over time in order to facilitate a certain way of acting


Approaching Ethics

• Prudence: foundational virtue permeating all decision making

• Justice: distributive, legal, and commutative

• Fortitude: helping administrators overcome obstacles and look beyond fears

• Temperance: balance between responsibility and pleasure


Ethical Decision Making

• Two ways to describe conscience:1. An inclination that helps a person decide

how to act in relation to a particular ethical dilemma

2. A skill acquired through experience that a person can use to make an informed judgment



• Evidence-based approaches to ethical decision making: strict consequentialism, mixed consequentialism, and deontologism

• Strict consequentialism (Fletcher)– Identify the problem– List alternative courses of action– Predict the consequences of each alternative– Assign a value to the good produced by each

alternative– Select the alterative with the greatest good



• Mixed Consequentialism (Knauer, Schuller, Fuchs, Janssen)– Identify the problem– Analyze the problem– Analyze the values that are influenced by a

person’s beliefs and convictions– Identify norms that should guide the action

that protects the person’s values



– Explore the consequences of the action– Compare the consequences with the values– If the consequences and the values are

inconsistent, explore other alternatives and test them

– If the consequences and the values are consistent, perform the action



• Deontologism (Grisez, May, Ramsey)– Identify the problem– Match up alternative courses of action with

corresponding norms– The higher norm is the one which should be

acted onGula, Moral Norms, pp. 60-62.


The Ethical Use of Power in Evidence-Based Leadership

• Administrators should develop strategies that will mitigate the negative dimension of power in the supervisor/employee relationship.

• Power emanates from four bases:– Coercion– Reward– Punishment– knowledge



• Fear is the key element of coercion.

• Reward power is the opposite of coercive power.

• Persuasive power is the ability to manipulate symbolic coercion or rewards.

• Knowledge power is predicated on having access to unique or valuable information.



• There are four source from which power emanates:– Position or job– Personal characteristics– Special skills or knowledge– Opportunity


Evidential-Based Ethical Principles

1. Social and physical sciences have discovered that the universe and humanity are much older and interdependent than originally thought

2. Humans gradually evolved onto higher plans of thought, reflection, and liberty.

3. Thought, reflection, and liberty are the components of human experience, understanding, and judgment.



4. The conscious exercise of human reason is the context within educational leaders can develop ethical norms.

5. It is the responsibility of educational leaders to search for what is ethically good in providing services for students and in supporting the activities of school district employees.



6. Cultivating the virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance are valuable aids in helping educational leaders exercise their responsibilities.

7. Utilizing a systematic approach to ethical decision making can help educational leaders confront the complex issues facing contemporary education.



8. Educational leaders can sustain an ethical direction in their professional lives only through striving to find meaning in their daily activities. Rebore, The Ethics of Educational Leadership, pp. 45-46.

9. Administrators have power over the people that they supervise and it is important for administrators to develop strategies that will support the ethical use of power and mitigate the negative.


A Code of Ethics for Educational Leaders

• Statement of Standards section of the AASA code for educational leaders includes the following guidelines:– Makes the well-being of students the

fundamental values in all decision making and actions

– Fulfills professional responsibilities with honesty and integrity



– Supports the principle of due process and protects the civil and human rights of all individuals

– Obeys local, state, and national laws and does not knowingly join or support organizations that advocate the overthrow of the government

– Implements the governing board to education’s policies and administrative rules and regulations



– Pursues appropriate measures to correct those laws, policies, and regulations that are not consistent with sound educational goals

– Avoids using positions of personal gain through political, social, religious, economic, or other influence

– Accepts academic degrees or professional certification only from duly accredited institutions



– Maintains the standards and seeks to improve the effectiveness of the profession through research and continuing professional development

– Honors all contracts American Association of School Adminstrators, Statement of Ethics (Arlington, VA: The Association, 1996).


Discussion Questions and Statements

1. What is the major question concerning the human phenomenon that is endemic to evidence-based decision making?

2. Explain how the classical worldview and the contemporary worldview influence effective evidence-based decision making.

3. How are evidence-based social ethics developed?


Discussion Questions and Statements

4. Explain what is meant by evidence-based social ethics.

5. Explain how practicing the virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance support evidence-based ethical decision making.

6. Explain how principles and superintendents can develop ethical strategies to mitigate the negative use of power in the supervisory-employee relationship.

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An Evidence-Based Approach to the Practice of Educational Leadership