Moral Dilemma Essay
Nicholas Barlett
Virginia Commonwealth University
Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
This essay describes a moral dilemma and the decision making process used to address
the problem. The first portion describes the circumstances of the dilemma. The next portion
evaluates the process and the decisions that were made. Finally the decision is evaluated based
on Richard Starratt’s four ethical frameworks. This thorough evaluation of this situation allows
for an in depth evaluation of the processes involved in working through an moral dilemma.
Statement of the Issue
Nic is an Associate Principal in a high school that is largely divided among a blue collar
rural community, a blue collar urban community and a narrow but growing strip of middle class
suburbs that divide the two. Many students in the school are faced with poverty issues. They are
also somewhat transient as most of the families rent their homes or apartments. When Nic first
began working at this school he found that setting a firm standard for behavior and academics
was not effective with many students. These students generally saw this authoritarian stance as
distant and unapproachable. Therefore their natural inclination was to rebel harder against the
expectations that they were expected to reach. After some time working at the school Nic found
that one of the effective ways to motivate students to achieve was through establishing a
relationship of trust. He felt that by showing some flexibility he was able to nurture a feeling of
care and compassion. From these relationship students that would have otherwise rebelled were
more inclined to try to reach the standard of someone they cared about. This desire to be
compassionate occasionally came in direct conflict with the need to run an orderly and focused
school program.
Nic struggled with ensuring that those students who were focused and meeting the
school’s expectations were afforded the environment necessary for them to achieve their goals.
At the same time he wanted to be compassionate to those students that needed a great deal of
time and accommodation so that they were motivated to work toward their goals. A school that
compromises order in order to build positive relationships will struggle to keep focus on
academic excellence.
Due to the challenging nature of the student body Nic got to know many students well
because he saw some of the same students many times during a week for disciplinary concerns.
One such group of students that he saw often was a trio of siblings who were the last three of a
line of 7 siblings who had all been students at the same high school. In this family the behavior
became increasingly worse with each successive birth. Nic had gotten to know the mother well
due to the nearly constant problems that the siblings created. She was always willing to support
his decisions while advocating for her children. She was always kind and was the sole money
earner in a house with 7 children, some of whom were grown and had babies of their own. She
worked multiple jobs to stay this high school which she often stated was the only place from
which she wanted her children to graduate. With her focus on wanting the best for her children
while struggling to keep her head above water, Nic felt a great deal of empathy for her. On
many occasions he did things to help the family like transporting the children home and getting
them food for the holidays from the school food drive.
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Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
The family’s issues only mounted when the small home they rented caught fire and they
were forced to move into a friend’s home on the other side of the city line. The McKinneyVento Homeless Education Assistance Act of 1987 enabled them to continue their education for
the remainder of the year at the high school. The children continued to come to school but
finished the year with escalating disruptive and demonstrative behaviors. Their mother had
promised that she would continue to look for a place in the county but in the meantime she was
paying rent to her friend that was allowing her to live in the city.
The school year ended, the Summer passed, and the next school year began and the children
were the worst they had been and were creating a substantial disruption to the learning
environment in the school. They also stated that they were renting the same home in the city. At
this point they were residents of the city. Nic was faced with the dilemma of continuing to work
with the siblings and their terribly disruptive behavior while turning a blind eye to the residency
issues or cutting this family loose from the school after years of care and effort to help them for
the sake of order at the high school.
Discovery Essay
To address the dilemma of trying to meet the needs of one family that is facing some
momentous struggles it is necessary that Nic try to balance what is the best for them versus what
is best for the rest of the school. Also involved is deciding whether it is better to blindly follow
policy or get entangled in the vagaries of making a judgment call. Most people that get into
teaching must have as one of their core values a sense of devotion to those students that they
serve. Otherwise the school can lose sight of the fact that the school is filled with individuals
who have a seemingly infinite variety of concerns and needs. Values like fairness and equality
are also involved in the decision making process in this scenario. While county school policy
encourages equity it seems that valuing fairness requires the person making the decision to
consider the background of the individuals and the desired outcome. In this case unequal
treatment may be the most fair.
In order to do what would most beneficial for these children Nic would most likely allow
them to continue to attend the school while living in the home in the city just as they had the year
before. Deciding to make no change allowed these struggling students to not have to deal with
Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
transitioning to a school in the city. Central to this decision is the assumption that the city school
could not do what could be done at this high school. If that is the case then it was a better ethical
decision to allow them to continue.
Like many other school systems, Nic’s school system finds it easy to establish policies
but it they find it is much more difficult to enforce them. This led to another assumption that the
process to have a family that is suspected to be living out of the district removed was difficult
and only occasionally successful. This could have resulted in the scaring of what had been a
positive relationship with a big family in the community and would likely have ended in the
family remaining at Nic’s high school. The assumption that Nic made that was most important
for him was that allowing this family to stay at the high would have limited repercussions. He
had to assume that the teachers would be fine with continuing to work with these at risk students.
Nic was confident in this because the teachers had voice that they too had forged relationships
with the whole family because of their tenure at the school. He was confident that he would not
be admonished for not following the established policy because this same thing had been done
by his colleagues previously and it appeared that the county employees for monitoring this were
completely overrun.
By allowing the family to stay at the high school one of the negative implications is that
Nic is ignoring the county’s established rules on residency and this exposes him to repercussions
from his superiors. The students could also continue to behave poorly and this could result in
greater disruption to the school which negatively impacts the learning environment from those
that are residents of the county. Nic may also lose credibility among his teaching staff if the
opinion of this family shifts and the teachers wished they had been removed. Nic could have a
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Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
harder time demanding that teachers follow the county policies when he had broken them
himself.
A positive implication is that by allowing them to continue to attend, Nic opens the door
for them to build on the relationship of trust to push the students to improve. Helping them to
graduate would be incredibly rewarding after all of the effort that was invested with this family.
The implication that is most desired by Nic is that these students that struggled through school
would now be more likely to have a rewarding life after high school and be able to contribute to
improving the larger community.
This ethical dilemma helps to establish a moral rule of do what is best for the education
of the children for which one feels responsible. Base on this the moral judgment is that because
Nic felt responsible to this family he had to do what was in their best interest. In this case it is
allowing them to continue to stay at his high school.
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Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
Moral Dilemma: Do you ignore policy to do what is in the best interest of individuals?
Values: These were discussed directly or implicitly
Compassion
Empathy
Honesty
Fairness
Devotion
Order
Altruism
Pride
Harmony
Utility
Equality
Loyalty
Moral Judgment: Since Nic felt responsible to this family he had to do what was in their best
interest of their education.
Moral Rule: Do what is best for the education of the children for which one feels responsible.
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Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
Justification Essay
Every school leader uses a framework from which they ground their decision making
process. These ethical frameworks allow leaders to focus on the type of decision making process
that will provide them with the outcome they need. Leadership without a clear ethical focus
becomes confusing to stakeholders. A guiding ethos is a central component to determining a
school culture and it is the responsibility of the leadership to determine what that looks like in
their community. Robert J. Starratt created four frameworks to help simplify the decision
making process. The Ethics of Critique, Justice, Care, and Profession provide categories for
structuring ethical decision making.
The Ethic of Critique questions who has authority; who benefits; and who decides what is
valued. The Ethic of Justice focuses on the rights and laws of those involved in the ethical
dilemma. The Ethic of Care respects the dignity of each person and treats them as individuals.
Professional standards of ethics guide ethical decision making based on practices and beliefs
related to a particular field. These frameworks provide basic categories to determine relevance to
the culture and the circumstance of a leadership dilemma (Arkin & Sherman Newcomb, 2014).
The circumstances that Nic faced with his out of district family can be seen through the lenses of
each of Starratt’s frameworks.
Central to the dilemma that Nic faced was whether or not he should follow the
established policy of the county that employed him. Nic obviously questioned the status quo of
the policies established by his county. This effort to think critically of the circumstances in a
dilemma is a hallmark of the Ethic of Critique (Arkin & Sherman Newcomb, 2014). Nic also
questioned the validity and rationale of the policy in two different ways. He knew it had been
broken many times before with no obvious adverse consequences. Nic also showed that he
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Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
questioned who was the authority in this situation. He demonstrated his belief that those with
closer contact to enforcing the policy had the ability to judge how it should be implemented.
Digging deeper than rote policy is also a key part that was demonstrated by Nic’s decision to
choose to ignore the routine policies of his county.
The Ethic of Justice focuses on the ethical components of law and the rights of
individuals impacted by a decision. On the face of it one may feel that Nic disregarded the
policy of the county so he has violated the Ethic of Justice. There is more to this concept. The
Ethic of Justice also accounts for the common good and rights of the individuals involved (Arkin
& Sherman Newcomb, 2014). Nic certainly considered the rights of the family facing all of the
challenges but he also knew that the common good of the community could be addressed by
allowing them to stay. As pointed out above, the family had established relationships with other
students, teachers, and community members. By allowing them to stay one of the possible
outcomes is the creation of stronger relationships of trust among these stakeholders. Under the
Ethic of Justice school leaders are responsible for accounting for the needs of all constituents
(Arkin & Sherman Newcomb, 2014). The action that Nic took addressed the needs of an
individual family but also considered the impact and needs of the broader community.
The compassion and concern that was shown for the struggling family in this scenario are
emblematic of the Ethic of Care. This framework is marked by honoring the needs of all
constituents (Arkin & Sherman Newcomb, 2014). Nic must have considered the needs of the
few if he disregarded the policies that provided blanket treatment for everyone based on
residency. To address the unique emotional issues of both the individuals and the community
Nic decided to consider the emotional impact on the students who were experiencing so much
upheaval. Nic also had to consider the example that this display of compassion may have on
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Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
other stakeholders as well. This framework requires leaders to answer the question, who will be
hurt by this decision (Arkin & Sherman Newcomb, 2014)? By allowing this particular family to
stay at the high school and considering the impact on the school, Nic had to consider the impact
that his decisions would have on these distinct groups.
The professional framework, when viewed from the perspective of an educator, is very
similar to the Ethic of Care. The professional framework relies on the personal and
organizational standards that are prized by people within a field of work. Educators have a
natural inclination toward nurturing (Arkin & Sherman Newcomb, 2014). This makes sense
when one considers that the drive within the profession is focused on helping students to
improve. Nic and the other teachers were willing to risk the possibility of further disruption to
the campus in order to keep the students form this family at their school because they believed it
would be in their best interest. Part of this decision was made based on the professional desire
to nurture these students through this difficult part of their lives.
While Nic appears to have done the right thing by allowing the struggling family to
stay, there still exists controversy over this decision. In spite of the fact that care was given for
the needs of this family, there could be concern over the precedent that this sets. There may be
others that could point to the actions established with this family and expect this treatment in all
circumstances. Under the Ethic of Justice each person should be treated in a way that each
person is treated as individuals. This can act as a double edged sword to allow leniency when
necessary and strict adherence when needed.
Nic’s judgement also required a stubborn assumption that the schools that the students
would have attended could not provide them the education that they needed. Part of this was
simply based on the belief that these children were coming to school because of the relationships
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Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
they had formed. In the end it may not have mattered what school they went to because no
school had the relationships that they had at Nic’s school. As in most cases, there is no way to
know how our decisions will turn out but the frameworks of Staratt help to guide the decision
making process to that we can have some idea of how to best address these dilemmas.
The structure of these frameworks informs the decision making process. This is
supremely important because there is seldom an obvious answer in a true dilemma. The
complexity of these issues can cause a leader to miss an important consideration in the deluge of
information. These frameworks help to focus this process.
In considering each of these frames
a leaders dilemma is evaluated from a variety of perspectives. The thorough reflection of a
decision adds to the likelihood that a leader makes the best ethical choice in the circumstances
before them.
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Running Head: Moral Dilemma Essay
References
Arkin, J. & Sherman Newcomb, W. (2014) Starratt’s framework [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved
from Virginia Commonwealth University Blackboard website:
https://blackboard.vcu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2
Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_108
024_1%26url%3D