Pre-Service Teacher Preparation And Preparedness For Ethicaland Moral Decision-Making In Tanzania

Teachers are among the most important personnel in the attainment of educational goals in a nation,thus they are required to demonstrate the highest standards of ethical and moral practice,through their daily decisions.Yet,there has been a growing concern in recent years,about teachers' unprofessional conduct as the manifestations of their decisions.The pre-service teacher education programs have a key role in preparing the pre-service teachers,in the ethical and moral dimensions of the teaching profession,to enable them to make informed decisions when fulfilling their professional roles.This study explored the preparation and preparedness of pre-service teachers for ethical and moral decision-making,among public and private universities in Tanzania.The study employed a mixed-method design,that was informed by an exploratory mixedmethod sequential case study design,and was underpinned by a pragmatic philosophical thought.Purposive sampling was employed to select the study participants that included;teachers,heads of public secondary schools,and teacher educators from public and private universities.Data collection and analysis involved two distinct phases.The first phase involved the collection and analysis of qualitative data that were obtained through semi-structured interviews held with heads of schools [Ho Ss],and teacher educators;focus group discussions held with teachers,and document review.The second phase involved the collection and analysis of quantitative data that were gathered through surveys that were administered to teachers and Ho Ss.The findings of this study revealed that public and private universities taught the ethical and moral content education among their pre-service teachers,through the specific ethics education courses.However,the preparation of pre-service teachers for ethical and moral decision making by the universities was influenced by various factors,which in turn affected the effective preparation of the pre-service teachers in the ethical and moral aspects of the teaching profession.Such factors emanated from both within and outside the universities.The findings also revealed that the pre-service teachers' preparedness for ethical and moral decision-making,as a result of the acquired ethical knowledge and skills through the pre-service teacher programs,was unsatisfactory.In a similar fashion,the findings disclosed that teachers' utilization of the acquire ethical knowledge and skills,to make decisions in the real contexts,was also unsatisfactory.The study highlighted several different key areas of concern that required improvement,to ensure the effective preparation of pre-service teachers for ethical and moral decisionmaking.Among others,such areas included the course content,teaching/learning [T/L]resources,T/L methods,and the methods of assessment of the learning outcomes of the ethics education courses.Thus,in a general view,the study revealed that both public and private universities were determined to prepare their pre-service teachers for ethical and moral decision making,through specific ethics education courses.Nevertheless,the process of preparing the pre-service teachers for ethical and moral decision making was influenced by both internal and external factors,which consequently affected the general preparation and preparedness of pre-service teachers,for ethical and moral decision making.Henceforth,that condition appealed for improvement in some of the key areas involved in the T/L of the ethics education courses.