HEAD TEACHERS’ DILEMMA IN ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY ON COMMUNITY SCHOOLS IN NEPAL

Abstract

This study explores the kinds of dilemmas community school head teachers encounter while making decisions. According to Education rules, 2002, the roles and responsibilities of head teachers at community schools are prescribed ones. On the one hand, they are to carry out the policy-driven prescriptive responsibilities. On the other hand, head teachers are not the policy maker; the MOEST is the policy maker and head teachers are implementers. On top of that, SSDP 2016-23 has empowered SMC for the decision making as per the needs of school. Moreover, teachers at community schools are very active in party politics, union politics, etc (Shrestha, 2014). In this context, this research explores the dilemmas they would face and the way these dilemmas are resolved. In this study I adopted narrative inquiry as a research method to explore distinct and meaningful stories of different head teachers of different community schools. Stories are the best way to recollect what had happened and present. It is also best way to explore lived experiences of head teachers. In this inquiry the story of II each head teacher is taken individually, and story-based themes are not constructed based on the similarities of all participants. I believe the story of each participant is unique and meaningful. Even though each participant shares same identity as head teacher, the geographical, social, cultural and language diversity contexts are different. Experiences in these different contexts generate different stories from each other. Therefore, while making story-based themes, the reductionist approach has not been adopted. Head teachers at community schools encountered multiple dilemmas while making decisions about implementing codes of conduct, the responsibilities and day to-day works. The dilemmas such as education policy, worldview, responsibility ethics, role model, culture, integrity and care emerged while making decisions. The ethical multiple paradigm theory and the TERA model was used to interpret the dilemma head teachers experienced and the way they resolved them. Dilemmas are resolved based on the personal values and ethics a person is oriented to. This study contributes to the field of educational administration leadership in general. In particular, the study contributes to the community schools.