Ethical School Leadership: Problems of an Elusive Role

Abstract

Educational literature increasingly emphasizes the importance of ethics in school leadership and the need to recognize professional responsibilities as basic ethical imperatives. It further notes that future administrators must be engaged in preparation programs which highlight this neglected area and the prominence of their role as ethical practitioners. Within this theoretical context, and from the perspective of my personal experience teaching future school leaders, this paper addresses complexities involved in translating philosophical principles into practice within a prevailing climate of value relativism; it ponders the irony of asserting goals of ethical leadership while continuing to accept ethics as subjectively-defined values of opinion and preference.