The role of teachers in inculcating moral values: operationalisation of concepts

Dealing with values and moral issues is recognised as integral part of teachers’ roles. Especially in culturally heterogeneous societies teachers face multiple values that students and their families may hold. The study reported in this paper explores different conceptions of teachers’ moral roles aiming to develop an instrument for assessing teacher beliefs about those roles that could be used in teacher development. Paternalist, liberal and social-relativist conceptions of teachers’ moral roles were operationalised using data collected in three focus groups with teachers from Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia discussing cases of school practices involving value-laden issues. Initial items for construction of a questionnaire for teachers were generated from teachers’ utterances to ensure ecological validity. Implications for teacher development and future research are discussed.