Opinions of The Teachers of Pre-School Education on Ethics

Abstract

This study aims to examine the opinions of the pre-school education teachers on ethics. The study has been designed pursuant to the qualitative and case study techniques. The study included 32 pre-school education teachers during the academic year 2020-2021. The general information form and structured questionary form, prepared by the researcher, were used to collect the data. Due to the epidemic period, the participants filled out the forms online and then sent them to the researcher. Data were transcribed in a text format and analyzed using an inductive approach. Descriptive and content analysis were used in the analysis of the data. First, similar data were combined, codes were created, and categories were reached from interrelated codes. The study's findings revealed that participants view ethics as having a social, personal, and global dimension. Moreover, the participants related professional ethics to the teachers' rules and competencies. In addition, findings showed that the participants took equality and justice as the basis for acting ethically in working with children, that they respected children’s rights and individual differences, and that they were aware of the importance of the issue of values as it was related to ethical values. Finally, it was found that participants perceived ethical violations that inadequate communication with families in the distance education process, and difficulty reaching children.