Comparing and examining the attitudes of classroom teachers towards professional ethics and classroom management in relation to various variables

This mixed-methods study compared classroom the attitudes of classroom teachers towards professional ethics according to different variables, and examined the relationship between them. The study population consisted of classroom teachers working in public and private primary schools located in central districts (Seyhan, Çukurova, Sarıçam, and Yüreğir) of the Adana Province during the 2017-2018 school year. The study sample was determined using a cluster sampling method, with public and private schools being considered as clusters. The research data were collected using the Professional Ethics Principles Scale, the Attitudes and Beliefs towards Classroom Management Scale (ABMS), a Semi-Structured Interview form, and a Personal Information Form developed by the researcher. The quantitative data were collected during the spring and summer semesters of the 2017-2018 school year, whereas the qualitative data were collected during the fall semester of the 2018-2019 school year. In this process, necessary formal permissions were obtained from the National Education Department of Adana Province. Next, the schools were visited and school principals or vice principals were informed about the study. The researcher distributed the data collection tools to all teachers working in sampled schools where the school principals considered appropriate. In other schools, the vice principals and school counselors helped in collecting data, and participation in the study was voluntary. A total of 565 teachers, 376 women and 189 men, participated in the quantitative part of the study. However, the analyses were conducted based on data from 499 teachers who filled out the data collection tools, where 338 were women and 161 were men. Further, the qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 14 volunteer teachers (13 women, one man). Considering that the descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation) and distributions did not show normal distribution, the quantitative data were analyzed using Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis H, and Spearman correlation tests. However, the qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. As a result, the study found that teachers fully adopted the principles of professional ethics (principles of professional ethics for society, school, profession, colleagues, students, and parents). Their state of adherence to the principles of professional ethics did not significantly differ by gender, age, marital status, having children, graduated faculty, years of service, length of service at school, grade levels where they taught, class sizes, and whether they received any training on ethics. In addition, the private school teachers demonstrated a higher level of adherence to ethical principles towards society, profession, colleagues, and parents. Likewise, teachers working in schools in middle socioeconomic environments showed a higher level of adherence to ethical principles towards the profession, colleagues, and students. According to the opinions of colleagues, the primary school teachers complied with the ethical principles towards society, school, profession, and colleagues to a large extent, while they completely complied with ethical principles towards students and parents. The opinions of teachers about their colleagues' compliance with the principles of professional ethics did not significantly differ by gender, marital status, having children, graduated faculty, length of service at school, grade levels where they taught, class sizes, and having received/not received any training. The study also determined that teachers with 11-20 years of service and over 40 years of age had more positive perceptions of their colleagues in terms of principles of professional ethics. As such, the private school teachers had more positive perceptions of their colleagues in terms of ethical principles towards the profession, students, and parents. Teachers working in schools located in middle socioeconomic environments perceived their colleagues more positively in terms of their compliance with the principles of professional ethics towards society, profession, colleagues, and students. The study findings indicated that teachers' attitudes and beliefs regarding classroom management were interventionist in instruction management and interactionist in human and behavior management. The public school teachers were more interventional in human management. The results showed a small positive correlation between teachers' adherence to the principles of professional ethics and their attitudes toward instruction management and a small negative correlation between their adherence to ethical principles toward society, colleagues, and parents and their attitudes towards people. Yet, there was no significant relationship between teachers' adherence to professional ethics and their attitudes toward behavior management. The meanings they attributed to the concepts of ethics and professional ethics overlapped. When describing professional ethics, teachers mostly focused on abstract concepts (such as being honest, behaving in a way that suits a teacher, behaving positively, and so forth) and rarely touched on concrete behaviors that include these behaviors professionally. The participants, who mostly focused on ethical principles towards students, profession, and society, touched on ethical principles towards colleagues and parents relatively less. According to teachers, using profane language towards students and parents, intemperate discipline, unconformity, failure to establish communication with colleagues, and inability to fulfill one's duties were the unethical behaviors that they observed in their colleagues. The personal characteristics and professional experiences were influential in the development of ethical understanding of teachers who described their classroom management attitudes as interactionist. In addition to professional experience, pre-service training programs and model teachers were influential factors in developing a classroom management understanding. Teachers generally stated that they had an ethical dichotomy in human and behavior management, emphasizing on effective ethics training (pre-service and in-service) to develop an ethical understanding in teachers. Keywords: Professional ethics of teaching, classroom management attitudes and beliefs, primary school, classroom teacher