Designing the pattern of teachers' professional ethics: A mixed methods study

The existence of ethics in education leads to the growth and excellence of education and consequently the whole country. Accordingly, the present study addressed the dimensions and components of the professional ethics of teachers and how to observe it. It was a mixed methods study with exploratory design. Based on this strategy, at first the qualitative data and subsequently quantitative data were collected and analyzed. Semi-structured interviews have been used to obtain qualitative data. The research population consisted of Tehrān school teachers. The sample consisted of 15 key informants and people who had live experiences in the professional ethics of teachers. They have been selected through purposeful and snowball sampling methods. The content of interview data has been analyzed using open and selective coding. After doing the qualitative study and developing a questionnaire, the quantitative method was used to test the extent of observance or existence of professional ethics of Tehrān school teachers. The results showed that teachers' professional ethics has eight main components: spirituality, personality, self-knowledge, ethical responsibility towards students, moral responsibility towards parents and guardians, moral responsibility towards profession and colleagues, moral responsibility towards the organization and administration and ultimately social responsibility. Tehrān school teachers believed that moral responsibility towards parents and guardians is observed more than the other components and ethical responsibility towards organization and administration are observed less than other components. The results of this research were largely consistent with the results of previous research. Based on the results of the previous research, most of the components of spirituality and ethical responsibility towards students, parents and professionals were emphasized, while in this research self-knowledge, social responsibility, and ethical responsibility towards organizations and colleagues were added to the earlier components. Also, according to the results of this research, the moral status of teachers in the components of moral responsibility towards organization and administration, self-knowledge and spirituality needs more attention.