Ethical Leadership and Moral Literacy - Incorporating Ethical Dilemmas in a Case-Based Pedagogy

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by ahduag

Ethical leadership preparation requires more than conventional training methods, linking knowledge, interpretive frameworks, and lived experiences to help leaders understand ethical and moral dimensions in school governance. This study evaluates an ethical dilemma approach within case-based pedagogy for leadership development, using a two-tier research design that reviews existing literature and then applies a case study method. The work focuses on moral literacy and addresses how future leaders learn to analyze dilemmas and make moral decisions for the common good.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages31

Reading Time1 h 18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Ethical leadership and moral responsibility

Case-based pedagogy and moral literacy

Research purpose and guiding questions

Ethical Leadership and Moral Literacy: Incorporating Ethical Dilemmas in a Case-‐Based Pedagogy This manuscript has been peer-‐reviewed, accepted, and endorsed by the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration as a significant contribution to the scholarship and practice of school administration and K-‐12 education. Patrick M. Jenlink Stephen F. Austin State University Karen Embry Jenlink Stephen F. Austin State University In this paper the authors examine an ethical dilemma approach to case -‐based pedagogy for leadership preparation, which was used in a doctoral studies program. Specifically, the authors argue that preparing educational leaders for the ethical dilemmas and moral decision -‐ making that define schools requires assessing current programs and pedagogical practices, identifying curricular and pedagogical conflicts that fail to address adequately preparing ethical leaders. To address the research questions, the researchers used a two -‐tier design. The first tier provides a review of the extant body of case-‐ based pedagogy and ethical leadership literature. The selected works were analyzed, which resulted in a set of case-‐based pedagogical perspectives. Tier two incorporated a case study approach to examine the use of an ethical dilemma approach to case-‐based pedagogy. NCPEA Education Leadership Review, Vol. 16, No. 2– November, 2015 ISSN: 1532-0723 © 2015 National Council of Professors of Educational Administration Introduction The preparation of education leaders – school and district level – concerned with ethical dilemmas and moral decisions must tightly connect knowledge, interpretive frameworks, and experiences that promote a complex understanding of ethical and moral dimensions of leadership. Increasingly, the literature on educational leadership has placed a greater focus on the moral aspects of schooling perhaps now, more than ever before (Furman, 2003, 2004) . From a focus on how moral leadership might be practiced (Sergiovanni, 1996a, 1996b; Starratt, 1995, 2004), to the why—or moral purposes of leadership (Murphy, 1999), the ethical imperative is clear: school leaders have a moral responsibility to all members of their organization to be informed, ethical, and capable moral agents who lead democratic schools (Shapiro, & Stefkovich, 2005) . The demands of the role of educational leader have changed so that traditional methods of preparation are no longer adequate to meet today’s challenges. The literature points to an expanded interest in ethical leadership practices (Jackson & Kelley, 2002), and a concern with social contexts has provoked greater attention to issues of diversity, race, gender and equity (Rebore, 2001) . Kimbrough’s Ethics: A Course of Study for Educational Leaders (1985) was perhaps one of the first significant attempts to introduce ethics into the preparation of school administrators. More recently, several key research studies and scholars cogently support the need for including ethics in the study of educational leadership preparation. In School Leadership Study: Developing Successful Principals (2005), Davis, Darling-‐Hammond, LaPointe, and Meyerson point to the need for educational leadership preparation programs to connect candidates with real-‐world dilemmas through the process of ethical decision-‐making. Young, Crow, Orr, Ogawa, & Creighton (2005) further this argument, noting the need for leadership curricula to be integrated, comprising topics that reflect extended periods of deliberation around social justice, interpersonal relations, and moral and ethical leadership. As Shapiro and Stefkovich (2005) posit, ethics is a necessary inclusion in the preparation of prospective educational leaders. A central, and perhaps defining element of ethical leadership centers on the nature of ethical dilemmas that leaders are confronted with on a daily basis, ethical dilemmas that draw into specific relief the increasingly

FAQs

What is the main focus of the manuscript?

The manuscript examines an ethical dilemma approach to case-based pedagogy for preparing educational leaders, emphasizing moral literacy and how future leaders handle ethical dilemmas and moral decision-making.

How was the research conducted?

The authors used a two-tier design: a review of case-based pedagogy and ethical leadership literature, followed by a case study approach to examine the ethical dilemma use in case-based pedagogy.

Why does the paper emphasize moral literacy in educational leadership?

Because preparing leaders to act with moral responsibility requires learning experiences that build the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed to engage with ethical dilemmas and make moral decisions for the common good.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by ahduag