Abstract

This study inquires whistle blowing intentions of alternatively certified prospective teachers, investigating their moral reasoning to blow the whistle. Specifically three hypotheses were tested: Overall ethical awareness of the alternatively certified prospective teachers is high; the participants will identify reasons related to philosophical values such as justice, deontology, utilitarianism, relativism and egoism as reasons for reporting wrongdoings; and they are more likely to whistle blow internally or externally when guaranteed their jobs. The sample is 180 prospective teachers who were voluntarily participated in Turkey. The author developed the instrument reviewing the literature. Results revealed that, overall ethical awareness of the participants is high. Philosophical values affect the participant’s ethical evaluation; especially justice and relativism have the strongest effect on their ethical reasoning. Lastly, the prospective teachers would prefer whistle-blowing more when they would have job guarantee than they would work as contracted. While there have been many studies examining whistle blowing with different factors such as cultural differences, organizational climate, ethical decision making in especially marketing, there has not been any intention for examining it in education. Thus, this paper aimed to contribute whistle blowing studies exploring whistle blowing intentions, and moral reasoning of prospective teachers.

Key words: Alternative certification, ethical evaluation, education, prospective teacher, whistle-blowing, Turkey.