SEL for Adults: Ethical Decision Making and Responsibility

If we as educators want to live lives of positive impact, and especially if we want to cultivate ethical growth in our students, we have to start with ourselves—by reflecting on our own values and behavior, understanding how we and others think about right and wrong, and always striving to live up to our moral principles. (Note: Though they sometimes have distinctions in meaning or connotation, the terms “ethical” and “moral” are generally used interchangeably.)

Educators are constantly communicating values and ethical messages to students, whether they mean to or not.

• Though some people may feel that school is not the best place for students to learn about morality, the truth is that the work of teaching is inherently moral. Teachers inevitably serve as ethical role models for students, and schools and teachers convey moral messages (i.e., what is right vs. wrong) and other values (i.e., what is important, desirable, etc.) all the time, in both explicit and implicit ways.
• The pattern of implicit ways in which schools socialize students and convey values—not through the academic curriculum, but through school policies, priorities, climate, interpersonal interactions, etc.— is known as the “hidden curriculum.”
• By explicitly addressing values and ethical issues with students, educators can be more intentional about the messages they convey; this also encourages students to consciously and critically reflect on their own values as well as the messages they receive.

When teachers understand and incorporate moral development principles into their classroom management and teaching, students respond better and show improved reasoning abilities.

• Across cultures, when judging social situations, both adults and children (as young as three-year-olds) can distinguish between issues that are moral (inherently right or wrong, such as because they hurt people or are unfair) and aspects that involve other considerations (e.g., social norms, rules dictated by authority, personal choices, safety). When deciding what to do, we have to balance between these different domains of social knowledge.

Kids know that hitting someone else for no reason is wrong. Even if their teacher said it was OK, or if they went to a different school where everyone did it, it would still be wrong, they say. On the other hand, if asked whether it’s OK to wear a swimsuit to class, they would likely say no—but if the principal allows it, or if it’s the tradition in another school, then it’s probably all right.

• When teachers respond to student misbehavior in a way that matches the domain of the transgression—for example, responding to a moral transgression (e.g., hitting) by talking about the harm done, and responding to a breach of a norm (e.g., talking out of turn) by referencing the classroom rules and disruption to order—students rate the responses better, and rate the teachers as more knowledgeable and effective.
• When discussion of social domains is integrated into the academic curriculum—such as by explicitly discussing which features of historical events had moral implications and which features had to do with social conventions—students show higher levels of reasoning and a greater ability to balance different considerations.

Strengthening moral identity (how important being a good person is to one’s sense of self) encourages people to make ethical decisions.

• Moral reasoning (figuring out what is right or wrong) and moral identity (wanting to be a person who does the right thing) are both important for ethical decision-making, especially in difficult situations.
• Moral identity is linked to moral action, such as donating money to charity, and to moral emotions, such as caring about people different than oneself and feeling guilty after doing something wrong.
• Simple cues, like reading lists of moral principles or writing stories using moral terms, can remind people of their moral identity and make them more likely to behave prosocially; on the other hand, performance-based incentives can turn people away from moral identity, making unethical behavior like lying or cheating more likely.
• When people have a strong, internalized moral identity, they are more motivated to behave prosocially even when they don’t get any recognition for it; one way to work towards this is by focusing on the internal (vs. external) rewards of doing the right thing.

Reducing moral disengagement (when people do things that they know are wrong, but distance themselves from the actions and consequences) helps people do the right thing more often.

• Research has found that moral disengagement is less likely in people who are empathetic and have strong moral identities, and more likely when people are cynical and feel that what happens is out of their control.
• Moral disengagement, unsurprisingly, is linked to unethical decisions and behavior.
• Using ethical tools as simple as an honor code can remind people of their moral values and identities, and thus reduce moral disengagement and unethical behavior.