How secondary school counselors make ethical decisions in their work

This qualitative study provides a critical analysis of how secondary school counselors make ethical decisions. The interpretive case study examined ethics, ethical reasoning, and leadership focusing on secondary school counselors' perspectives through the lens of complex ethical dilemmas. Primarily viewing similarities and differences between four suburban and four urban public high school counselors in Northern and Central New Jersey, the qualitative investigation used semi-structured interviews, observational data, narrative inquiries and document analysis. The semi-structured approach employed three types of questions, hypothetical, interpretive, and probes. In this study, two theoretical frameworks, the Multiple Ethical Paradigms of justice, critique, care, and the profession (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2001; 2005) and Turbulence Theory (Gross, 1998; 2004) frame this phenomenon.;The data suggest that secondary school counselors from both suburban and urban public schools have similar ethics and values, which they use on a day-to-day basis in their work. Clearly noted from these counselors was that their personal and professional codes or beliefs were manifested through their value systems. The six concepts that emerged were equity, care, accountability, communication, confidentiality, and integrity. Furthermore, the data revealed that these school counselors were guided by an ethical process that allowed them to apply practical actions with regard to solving ethical dilemmas. What emerged from the data were five categories: administrative policy issues, emotional and behavioral issues, college admissions issues, graduation issues, and professional issues. In addition, the school counselors consistently gravitated to the ethic of the profession, which related to their ethical principles. In sum, secondary school counselors in this case study utilized the Multiple Ethical Paradigms of justice, critique, care, and the profession and Turbulence Theory of light, moderate, severe, and extreme in their ethical reasoning regarding the best interests of their students.;This study aims to fill a gap in the literature by illuminating how school counselors view ethics and ethical decision making in relation to challenging dilemmas and how they deal with their decisions in times of turbulence.