Moral authorship of novice teachers in primary education

What is it about?

This article focuses on moral authorship as an element of the professional development of novice teachers in the Netherlands. Moral authorship refers to the ability of teachers to observe, identify, verbalize and reflect on the moral aspects of their work in a proactive and dialogical manner. We elaborate on moral authorship by theoretically exploring six interdependent tasks of moral meaning making: moral commitment, awareness, orientation and positioning, moral performance and evaluation. Narratives of 19 novice teachers were analyzed to explore moral authorship in teachers’ talk. The results show the opportunities of moral authorship to support, navigate and reinforce the professional development of novice teachers. This study suggests professional self-dialogues for enhancing the development of moral authorship. Keywords: moral authorship; novice teachers, primary education, professional development, teacher education.

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Why is it important?

The concept of moral authorship contributes to teacher education and teacher development.

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