| Abstract [eng] |
The Paper reveals expression of ethics, values, and moral judgements in the professional activities of social pedagogues. A mixed-method research was applied in order to determine ethics, values, and moral judgements of social pedagogues in their professional activities. The aim of the research was to reveal the expression of decisions based on ethics, values, and morality of social pedagogues in their professional activities. A survey – questionnaire survey method has been selected for accumulation of data acquired by means of mixed-method research. 288 social pedagogues employed by education and training establishments in Lithuania took part in the survey. SPSS software and qualitative content analysis were applied for processing of the obtained data. The major conclusions of the mixed-method research are as follows: 1. Upon analysis of the level of morality declared by social pedagogues based on L. Kohlberg’s cognitive–developmental model of morality, it was found that two stages of moral development were the dominant ones, i.e. the stage of interpersonal concordance orientation in the conventional level – when they are able to understand the attitude of other people, however, the social standards are complied with in order to ensure their own welfare; and the stage of social-contract, legalistic in the postconventional level – when generally accepted rules are perceived as a flexible instrument for maintenance of the human vales and laws. 2. The postconventional level of the development of morality dominates in making decisions when dealing with the actual professional moral dilemmas. 3. Upon performance of the correlation analysis of the levels of morality declared by social pedagogues and the ones actually manifested, it was found that their correlations were not strong: stages of orientation of moral decision-making declared by social pedagogues were different from the stages of orientation of moral decision-making demonstrated in the actual situations of practical activities. 4. The qualitative research method revealed that the conventional level dominated in the professional activities of social pedagogues. 5. The hypothesis that making of moral judgements took place in the fourth stage of the conventional level in case of the majority of social pedagogues was partially confirmed. |
