Relations Between Teachers' Professional and Religious Orientations and Their Behavior During...

Educational Research and Evaluation 1380-3611/03/0901–051$16.002003, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 51–74 # Swets & Zeitlinger

Relations Between Teachers’ Professionaland Religious Orientations and Their BehaviorDuring Morally Critical Incidents

Klaas van Veen1, Mari€eelle Theunissen1, Peter Sleegers2, Theo Bergen1,

Cees Klaassen2, and Chris Hermans3

1Graduate School of Education, 2Department of Educational Science, and 3Department ofTheology, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

The focus of this study is on how teachers’ professional and religious orientations relate to theirreaction intentions when confronted with morally critical incidents. The context of the study isthe increasing importance of the moral task of teachers which is complex in current secularizedand individualized Western society. The main assumption is that both professional and religiousorientations constitute a possible source for understanding differences in teachers’ behaviorduring such incidents. The results suggest that both orientations indeed play a role. This result isnotable with regard to the religious orientations because of the absence of this variable incurrent research.

INTRODUCTION

In research and policy, the moral dimension of teaching has gained increased

and renewed attention over the last decade (Goodlad, Soder, & Sirotnik, 1990;

Klaassen, 1996; Sockett, 1993; Tom, 1984). According to Tom (1984),

teaching is a moral craft as much as it is a technical and procedural endeavor.

This moral role not only expects teachers to serve an exemplary function,

represent numerous virtues and give pupils an extent of certainty in handling

values and norms (Tom, 1984), but also that teachers have to react during

morally critical incidents with which they are continuously confronted in their

daily practice (Colnerud, 1997; Oser & Althof, 1993).

Address correspondence to: Klaas van Veen, Graduate School of Education, University ofNijmegen, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Tel.: þ31 24 3612914.E-mail: [email protected]

This moral role, however, seems to be difficult to realize in today’s plural

society. Different social processes like secularization, individualization and the

fragmentation of value systems (Aronowitz & Giroux, 1991; Beck, 1992;

Hargreaves, 1994), make it more difficult to educate pupils morally and to give

pupils certainty in handling values and norms than it used to be. This implies that

teachers are confronted with a difficult task: being a moral agent in times where

the universal validity of Western values and knowledge is questioned. How do

teachers manage this complicated moral role? Therefore, research into how

teachers deal with the moral aspects of their work in current times is relevant.

Recent research on the moral dimension of teaching focuses not so much on

what teachers should do as how they actually act and behave during morally

critical incidents and just which principles appear to guide these actions

(Colnerud, 1997; Oser, 1991; Oser & Althof, 1993; Tirri, 1999). In such

situations, teachers’ personal values, norms and beliefs are considered to play

an important role in the decisions they make (Clark, 1990).

In order to understand teachers’ behavior during morally critical incidents,

Colnerud (1997) suggests that besides teachers’ personal preferences – general

ethics – also their professionality – their professional duties or tasks – is

important. Morally critical incidents take place in the classroom and are a part

of everyday school life. It requires complex decision-making, which is assumed

to be influenced by teachers’ professional and personal orientations. Following

Colnerud (1997) and Oser (1991), in this study these personal preferences are

defined in terms of general ethics. We assume that these ethics are grounded in a

more fundamental set of orientations towards life. In this study, this more

fundamental set will be explored in terms of religious orientations. So, the focus

of the present study is on teachers’ professional and religious orientations in

relation to their behavior during morally critical incidents.

We will start with a discussion of the main concepts. The research method

will then be described, and the results will be reported next. We will close with

a few conclusions and a discussion of the relevant concepts and theoretical

assumptions.

DISCUSSION OF THE MAIN CONCEPTS

Professional OrientationsAs already mentioned, research on teacher’s behavior during morally critical

incidents has been concentrated on the nature of the situations, the actions of

52 KLAAS VAN VEEN ET AL.

the teachers during the incident, and the principles or general ethics

which appear to guide the actions of teachers under such circumstances.

Such principles or general ethics refer to the justification of the ethical

decisions made during morally critical incidents in terms of justice, car-

ing, respect and truthfulness (Colnerud, 1997; Oser, 1991; Tirri, 1999).

According to Colnerud, such principles are relevant for understanding

teachers’ behavior during morally critical incidents in combination with

the structural conditions accompanying the teaching task. Structural

conditions stem from the obligations which teachers have towards their

pupils, can be formulated in terms of tasks, and are part of teacher

professionality. Teachers’ professionality is characterized by Colnerud as the

more or less static and objective conditions which structure the professional

field and duties of teachers. In relation to such general ethics as protection,

respect, justice, and veracity, these conditions structuring teachers’ work can

give rise to ethical conflicts. While we agree with Colnerud that teachers’

professionality must be considered to understand teachers’ behavior during

morally critical incidents, we have some problems with the conceptualization

of teachers’ professionality in terms of structural conditions alone. Pro-

fessionality is not as static or objective as ‘‘structural conditions’’ suggests;

professionality is a socially defined construct. We see the concept of profes-

sionality of teachers as referring to a constellation of assumptions about how

teachers should work in terms of what they must master, what they must do

and what they must aim for (Van Veen, Sleegers, Bergen, & Klaassen, 2001).

Socially defined means that many actors determine what teachers should do.

In addition to the objective and social characteristics of teachers’

professionality, we also assume that the significance attached to their

professionality by the teachers themselves is relevant. Teachers’ perceptions

are clearly the result of a complex interaction between previous work

experiences, their personal biographies and the organizational context in

which they work. On the basis of this interaction, teachers construct sub-

jective meanings which colour their perceptions of their work, their working

environment and their behavior. We therefore believe that greater attention

should be paid to the subjective perceptions of teachers as these not only help

them organize and understand their daily work but also influence their

behavior in the classroom and their behavior during morally critical incidents

(cf. Kelchtermans, 1993; Nias, 1989).

Most recently, Van Veen et al. (2001) examined teachers’ professionality

within the context of educational change. Three aspects of teachers’ work

TEACHERS’ BEHAVIOR DURING MORALLY CRITICAL INCIDENTS 53

were found to be particularly relevant for understanding the professional

orientations of teachers: instructional domain, the goals of education, and the

teacher’s role within the school organization. In the literature, the following

orientations towards the aforementioned aspects of teachers’ work were

encountered. With regard to the instructional domain of teaching, two main

orientations can be distinguished: an orientation towards the transmission of

knowledge and a more pupil-centered or learning-oriented orientation (Billig

et al., 1988; Denessen, 1999). With regard to the goals of education (Billig

et al., 1988; Denessen, 1999), two major orientations can again be

distinguished: an orientation towards qualification and an orientation towards

personal and moral development. Research shows the different orientations

towards the instructional domain and goals of education to not be the opposite

of each other; that is, people can adopt both orientations either positively or

negatively at the same time (Billig et al., 1988; Denessen, 1999; Van Veen

et al., 2001). In addition to this, the orientations towards the instructional

domain and goals of education are strongly interrelated: an orientation

towards qualification tends to correlate with transmission-oriented teaching

while an orientation towards personal and moral development tends to

correlate with a more pupil-centered teaching approach. The combination of

the qualification and transmission of knowledge orientations is often char-

acterized as traditional1 and the combination of the personal development and

pupil-centered orientations is often characterized as progressive (cf.

Denessen, 1999). With regard to the organizational aspects of the school,

Hoyle’s distinction between a restricted and an extended orientation is useful

(Hoyle, 1980). A teacher with a restricted orientation is primarily focused on

pedagogical content, her or his own subject matter and her or his own teaching

activities. A teacher with an extended orientation is more involved in the

school as an organization and has a wider scope of teaching interest than just

the classroom.

The orientations of teachers towards the three aforementioned aspects

of their work indicate what they see as most important in their work; how

they perceive their professionality. Research has shown ‘‘the best interest

of the child’’ to be one of the most frequently cited justifications for

1The terms used to typify the professional orientations of teachers are not meant to benormative. They do not represent what the authors consider the best professional orientation;and they do not concern the quality or competence of the teachers. The terminology has beenderived from the current discourse on the professionality of teachers.


teachers’ actions during morally critical incidents (Tirri, 1999), which

reflects a more pupil-centered orientation than an orientation towards the

transmission of knowledge. Along these lines, we expect those teachers with

progressive, extended orientations to behave more actively in reaction to

morally critical incidents than teachers with more traditional, restricted

orientations.

Religious OrientationsIn addition to the professional orientations of teachers, teachers’ personal

preferences are also relevant for understanding their behavior during morally

critical incidents (Colnerud, 1997). Just as Oser (1991) and Tirri (1999),

Colnerud defines such personal preferences in terms of general ethics such as

protection, respect, justice, and veracity. Although these general ethics seem

to be relevant for understanding teachers’ behavior during morally critical

incidents, they are grounded in an even more fundamental set of orientations

towards life. Particularly during critical incidents involving such fundamental

issues as questions of life and death or critical social issues, the general ethical

orientation of a teacher can clearly influence the decisions she or he makes. In

Western society, values and norms used to be grounded in Christian religion.

This implies that many values and norms do have a strong Christian

background. Although Western society has increasingly secularized, still it

seems reasonable to assume that Christian religious orientations play a role in

handling morally critical incidents. In other words, it can be assumed that for

many teachers Christian religious orientations play a role. In the present study,

we therefore assume that understanding teachers’ personal preferences and

their religious orientations in particular can help us understand their behavior

during morally critical incidents.

With regard to religious orientation, two dimensions seem to be

relevant: rootedness and openness (cf. Allport & Ross, 1967; Batson &

Ventis, 1982). The dimension of rootedness refers to the extent to which

people are ‘‘rooted’’ in their original religious background. In this study, the

Christian religion is taken to constitute this background as this religion

predominates in The Netherlands. The dimension of openness refers to the

extent to which people have a more general religious belief system without

any strong truth claims or a strong connection to Christianity (Kuitter, 1996;

Van der Ven & Ziebertz, 1994). In other words, the two dimensions of

religious orientation measure the extent to which people are specifically

oriented towards the Christian religion.


Research into the relation between religious orientation and teachers’

behavior during morally critical incidents is simply absent although we do

have some insight into the relation between religious orientation and

educational orientation (Denessen, 1999; Eisner, 1992). An orthodox

orientation towards religion strongly correlates with a more transmission-

oriented view of instruction and qualification-oriented goals of education.

This suggests that more religiously orthodox teachers may be less pupil-

oriented than other teachers. In terms of openness and rootedness, an orthodox

religious orientation can be characterized as weakly open as well as strongly

rooted. As already mentioned in connection with the different professional

orientations of teachers, a relation is assumed between a pupil-oriented

teaching focus and teachers’ behavior during morally critical incidents (Tirri,

1999). Along these lines, we expect teachers with a strongly open and weakly

rooted religious orientation to behave more actively when confronted with a

morally critical incident and teachers with a weakly open and strongly rooted

religious orientation to behave less actively.

Morally Critical IncidentsTo make the moral aspects of teaching more concrete and visible, the

presentation of conflict situations appears to be a suitable method (cf. Nott &

Wellington, 1995; Tirri, 1999). When normal routines are interrupted, mor-

ally critical incidents can arise and call for professional, functional behavior.

Morally critical incidents can be defined using three criteria: (1) the incident

takes place in the classroom; (2) the teacher has to react immediately; and (3)

the incident involves a conflict of values (De Kat & Roede, 1996). In our study,

we distinguish two different types of morally critical incidents. The first type

of incident involves death or illness (a pupil’s death, terminal illness on the

part of a parent, a pupil with a serious illness). Such cases of death and illness

clearly raise questions about the meaning of life. The second type of incident

relates to social issues involving the integrity of people (problems with

refugees, racism, sexism, poverty). The question here is just how a teacher

reacts when confronted with such a morally critical incident.

In the following, how teachers behave during morally critical incidents and

the relation of this behavior to their professional and religious orientations will

be empirically explored in terms of four research questions:

1. What are the orientations of teachers towards their work?2. What religious orientations do teachers have?


3. What are the reaction intentions of teachers during morally critical

incidents?4. How do the reaction intentions of teachers during morally critical incidents

relate to their professional and religious orientations?

METHOD

SampleThis research was conducted among the teachers working at secondary

schools affiliated with the ‘‘Carmel college’’ foundation in The Netherlands.

This foundation was willing to participate in our research (Theunissen et al.,

1998). The population consisted of 1,707 teachers. A questionnaire was sent to

855 teachers, with 452 teachers completing the questionnaire for a response

rate of 53%.

Measures

Professional Orientations

To measure teachers’ orientations towards their work, we distinguished three

aspects of their work: instruction, goals of education and the school organi-

zation. The following scales were then used to characterize the orientations of

the teachers, derived from van Veen et al. (2001).

Orientations towards instruction The orientations towards instruction refer

to the manner in which teachers are supposed to prepare, practice and evaluate

instruction. Two orientations are considered: transmission of knowledge/

teacher-oriented teaching and pupil/learning-oriented teaching. The orienta-

tions were measured using the following two scales.

The Transmission-oriented scale (2 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .59) refers to

product-oriented instruction with only a focus on the transmission of core-

subject knowledge. The scale consists of the following items: ‘‘The most

important task of teachers consists of teaching subject knowledge’’ and

‘‘Teachers should limit themselves in the lesson to the learning of content.’’

The Learning-oriented scale (6 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .72) refers to

process-oriented instruction with a focus on the learners’ construction of

knowledge. The scale covers teaching methods which emphasize the pupil

being responsible for her/his own learning process and aspects of self-

regulation, cooperation with peers and metacognitive skills. This scale


consists of such items as ‘‘Teachers should teach pupils how to plan their own

learning’’ and ‘‘Teachers should particularly teach pupils how they can

cooperate with each other.’’

Orientations towards the goals of education The orientations towards the

goals of education refer to the manner in which teachers are expected to

educate their pupils in terms of general development and schooling. Two

orientations are considered: an orientation towards qualification and an

orientation towards the moral development of the pupil. The orientations were

measured using two scales.

The Qualification-oriented scale (3 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .68) refers to

teaching which emphasizes the qualification, attainment and schooling

functions. This scale consists of such items as ‘‘The most important task of

teachers is to increase the achievement level of their pupils’’ and ‘‘It is

especially the task of teachers to give their pupils a proper schooling.’’

The Moral-oriented scale (7 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .77) refers to a

focus on pupils’ general and moral development. The teacher attempts to

guide pupils into adulthood, stimulate a critical attitude, and educate morally.

This scale consists of such items as ‘‘It is the most important task of teachers

to raise pupils to be people with a critical attitude’’ and ‘‘The task of teachers

mostly consists of the transfer of values and norms to pupils.’’

Orientations towards the school organization The orientations towards the

school organization refer to the extent to which teachers are willing to

participate and collaborate in the school organization. The different

orientations towards participation and collaboration are measured using six

scales derived from Witziers (1992). Teachers’ orientations towards partici-

pation in school decision-making processes are operationalized in terms

of the extent to which teachers view influence on issues belonging to the

instructional domain as important for a number of different groups within the

school (teachers themselves, other teachers, and school management). Three

scales measure the importance teachers attach to the influence of a particular

group on issues belonging to the instructional domain: Influence of the teacher

self (14 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .93), Influence of other teachers (14 items,

Cronbach’s alpha¼ .93), and Influence of the school management (14 items,

Cronbach’s alpha¼ .87). Examples of the items are: ‘‘The choice of edu-

cational method,’’ ‘‘The pedagogical approach,’’ ‘‘Report marking’’ and ‘‘The

amount of homework.’’


Teachers’ orientations towards collaboration are operationalized in terms of

the extent to which teachers perceive consultation on issues belonging to the

instructional domain as important for different groups within the school

organization (subject colleagues, other teachers, and school management).

Three scales measure the importance teachers attach to consultation with a

particular group on issues belonging to the instructional domain: Consultation

with subject colleagues (14 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .90), Consultation with

other teachers (14 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .87), and Consultation with

school management (14 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .87). Examples of the

items are: ‘‘The choice of educational method,’’ ‘‘The pedagogical approach,’’

‘‘Report marking’’ and ‘‘The amount of homework.’’

As already mentioned, two main orientations towards the role of teachers

within the school organization were examined: a restricted orientation and

an extended orientation. With regard to teachers’ participation in school

decision-making, it is assumed that a more extended orientation will

encourage teachers to recognize the influence of all the different school

groups as important. With regard to teachers’ collaboration, it is assumed that

those teachers with a more extended orientation will view consultation with

the different groups within the school organization as important. In Table 1,

Table 1. Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Teachers’ Professional Orientations.

M SD N

Transmission-oriented� 3.00 .80 451Learning-oriented� 4.07 .45 451

Qualification-oriented � 3.70 .68 451Moral-oriented � 3.47 .57 450

Consultation on educational issues:

with subject colleagues�� 3.53 .39 449with other teachers�� 2.44 .49 435with school management�� 2.36 .50 435

Influence on educational issues:

of teacher him/herself�� 3.14 .52 440of colleagues�� 2.85 .65 441of school management�� 2.06 .49 432

�5-point scale (1¼ disagree, 5¼ agree with the importance of).��4-point scale (1¼ not important, 4¼ important to consult with).��4-point scale (1¼ no influence, 4¼ influence of).


the mean scores and standard deviations for the different scales are

reported.

Religious Orientations

To measure teachers’ religious orientations, the following scales – as

described in Theunissen et al. (1998) – were used:

The Absolute scale (6 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .88) concerns assump-

tions about the absolute truth of the Christian religion. A sample item is

‘‘God has revealed himself in a definitive way in Christ.’’

The Transcendental scale (8 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .91) concerns

assumptions about the existence of a transcendental God. A sample item is

‘‘God is a personal God who takes care of me.’’

The Equal scale (5 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .81) concerns assumptions

about the equality of all religions. A sample item is ‘‘The truth can only be

known through a meeting of all religions.’’

The Immanent scale (2 items, Cronbach’s alpha¼ .69) concerns images of

God as an immanent God. A sample item is: ‘‘God is in the heart of all

people.’’

The preceding four scales were analyzed in a second-level factor analysis

(see Theunissen et al., 1998). This produced two factors, which we labeled as

rootedness (Cronbach’s alpha¼ .78; consists of the scales Absolute and

Transcendental) and openness (Cronbach’s alpha¼ .35; consists of the scales

Equal and Immanent). The dimension of rootedness refers to the extent to which

people are ‘‘rooted’’ in their original (Christian) religious background. The

dimension of openness refers to the extent to which people adhere to a more

general religious belief system without any strong truth claims or relations to

Christianity. In Table 2, the mean scores and standard deviations are reported.

Morally Critical Incidents

To measure teachers’ behavior during morally critical incidents, we presented

teachers with vignettes containing seven different morally critical incidents

and asked them about how they would react (i.e., their intended reactions). As

already mentioned, the morally critical incidents had to meet three criteria: 1)

the incident takes place in the classroom; 2) the teacher has to react

immediately; and 3) the incident involves a conflict of values. The vignettes


are based on research by Leeferink (1996) and De Kat and Roede (1996). We

used seven situations: three referring to issues of death and illness and four

referring to social issues. The morally critical incidents are as follows.

1. Shortly before the first lesson, a colleague tells you that a pupil just died

that very morning in an accident on his way to school. It concerns a pupil in

the class you are going to teach during the 1st hour that day. What do you

do during this lesson?2. You are the teacher of class 2c. During the first break of the day, you hear

from a colleague that a pupil’s father is terminally ill. He may only live

another couple of weeks. After the break, it is your turn to teach the class

and the pupil. What do you do?3. A pupil has cancer and will undergo radiation therapy very soon. This pupil

is in your class. Before the lesson, pupils are discussing a television program

broadcast the night before on young people with cancer. What do you do?4. Pupils enter the classroom prior to the start of class. They are talking about

refugees, the topic of the previous lesson. One pupil reacts in a very fierce

manner: ‘‘All refugees are here to take advantage of our wealth.’’ What do

you do?5. During your lesson, a native pupil suddenly shouts out at an immigrant

pupil: ‘‘Piss off to your own country.’’ What do you do?6. You offer your pupils the opportunity to spread some posters. One poster

contains a sexist message. What do you do?7. At the start of your lesson, some pupils are discussing the upcoming school

trip to Rome. You hear two pupils say: ‘‘It’s unfair for us not to be able to go

because our parents cannot afford to pay for the trip.’’ Another pupil reacts

by saying: ‘‘Then they should have worked harder.’’ What do you do?

Table 2. Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Teachers’ Religious Orientations.

M SD N

Absolute 3.92 .80 305Transcendental 2.65 .99 314

Equal 2.79 .83 319Immanent 2.79 .97 364

Rootedness 3.32 .96 377Openness 2.79 .79 403

Note. 5-point scale (1¼ strongly agree and 5¼ strongly disagree).


For each vignette, we asked the teachers how they were likely to react in such

a situation (i.e., their reaction intention). Would they ignore the situation, refer

a pupil to a counsellor or the head teacher, initiate a discussion of the incident

with (part of) the class or initiate a conversation with the individual pupil?

AnalysisTo gain insight into how teachers behave during morally critical incidents,

their professional and religious orientations were first analyzed in a cluster

analysis. Their intended reactions were then analyzed by computing the

frequencies. To explore the relations between the professional and religious

orientations of the teachers and their intended reactions to the morally critical

incidents, cross tabulation analyses were conducted. The level of significance

was set at p¼ .05.

RESULTS

Professional OrientationsThe first research question refers to the professional orientations of the

teachers. As already mentioned, we were more interested in the teachers’

general perceptions of their work and not their perceptions of each specific

aspect of their work. Therefore, we conducted a cluster analysis to explore the

different combinations of orientations towards the three aspects of teachers’

work (instruction, the goals of education, and the school organization). For

each of these aspects we distinguished two different orientations. With regard

to instruction, there is an orientation towards the transmission of knowledge

(traditional) and a more pupil-centered orientation (progressive). With regard

to the goals of education, there is an orientation towards qualification

(traditional) and an orientation towards personal and moral development

(progressive). With regard to the school organization, there is an orientation

towards mainly the classroom (restricted) and an orientation towards the

general school organization in addition to the classroom (extended).

For the cluster analysis, we used the hierarchical method of Ward (1963).

This method is a procedure for forming hierarchical groups of mutually

exclusive subsets containing members which are maximally similar with

respect to specific characteristics. For this analysis, the scores from all 10 of

the scales regarding the professional orientations of teachers, as described in

the Method section, were used. A solution with six clusters was chosen to

obtain the same number of respondents in each cluster and maximum


discrimination between the clusters. ANOVA was used to test for differences

between the clusters on the 10 variables. The mean scores and standardized

mean scores for the six clusters of teachers are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Mean Scores and Standardized Mean Scores� for Different Clusters of Teachers onScales Measuring Different Professional Orientations.

Total N¼ 426 Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4 Cluster 5 Cluster 6(N¼ 81) (N¼ 65) (N¼ 75) (N¼ 75) (N¼ 68) (N¼ 62)

Transmission-oriented 3.64 2.29 2.20 3.10 3.88 2.72.804 �.886 �1.00 .125 1.11 �.353

(þþ) (��) (��) (�) (þþþ) (�)

Learning-oriented 4.21 4.21 4.08 4.05 3.82 3.97.328 .327 .038 �.033 �.549 �.220(þ) (þ) (�) (�) (��) (�)

Qualification-oriented 4.24 3.50 2.88 3.72 4.15 3.71.790 �.301 �1.22 .018 .665 .014

(þþ) (�) (��) (�) (þþ) (�)

Moral-oriented 3.68 3.82 3.51 3.58 2.90 3.25.366 .618 .069 .187 �.989 �.387(þ) (þþ) (�) (�) (��) (�)

Consult subject colleagues 3.70 3.63 3.42 3.55 3.42 3.43.450 .265 �.277 .059 �.275 �.262(þ) (þ) (�) (�) (�) (�)

Consult other teachers 2.60 2.72 2.41 2.62 2.26 1.94.317 .559 �.061 .351 �.366 �1.03(þ) (þþ) (�) (þ) (�) (��)

Consult management 2.53 2.63 2.32 2.53 2.23 1.87.346 .539 �.087 .327 �.275 �.996(þ) (þþ) (�) (þ) (�) (��)

Influence of teacher self 3.45 3.49 2.85 2.93 2.92 3.19.592 .679 �.576 �.423 �.428 .090

(þþ) (þþ) (��) (�) (�) (�)

Influence of colleagues 3.33 3.18 2.95 2.76 2.67 1.97.732 .507 .147 �.140 �.272 �1.35

(þþ) (þþ) (�) (�) (�) (��)

Influence of school 2.20 2.38 2.00 2.17 1.86 1.69management .291 .649 �.122 .224 �.408 �.749

(þ) (þþ) (�) (þ) (�) (��)

Note. �Standardized Mean Scores between �.2 and .2 are assigned a (�); between �.45 and�.2 or between .2 and .45 are assigned a (�) or (þ), respectively; between �1.0 and�.45 or between .45 and 1.0 are assigned resp. a (��) or (þþ), respectively; and scoreslower than �1.0 or higher than 1.0 are assigned resp. a (��) or (þþþ), respectively.


As can be seen, the standardized scores in Table 3 allow us to typify six

types of teachers who differ in the combination of orientations towards their

work and their relative positions on the 10 scales. The predicate ‘‘low’’ (�) for

a cluster of teachers means that these teachers agree less with the orientation

represented by a particular scale than other teachers. The predicate ‘‘high’’

(þ) means that these teachers agree more with the orientation represented by a

particular scale than other teachers. To determine the relative positions of the

different teacher clusters on the 10 scales, the standardized mean scores were

thus used. The six types of teachers can be characterized as follows (for a more

elaborate discussion of these types of professional orientation, see Van Veen

et al., 2001):

A broad, extended professional orientation (Cluster 1): These teachers

consider both traditional and progressive orientations towards instruction

and the goals of education to be important, and this can be described as a

broad orientation. They also have an extended orientation towards their

role in the school organization.

Progressive, extended professional orientation (Cluster 2): These teachers

consider only the progressive orientations to be important with regard to

instruction (pupil centered) and the goals of education (personal and moral

development). With regard to the school organization, they have an

extended orientation.

Progressive, moderately extended professional orientation (Cluster 3):

These teachers have almost the same orientations as the teachers with a

progressive, extended professional orientation but with a less extended

orientation towards the school organization.

Moderately progressive, moderately extended professional orientation

(Cluster 4): These teachers also have almost the same orientations as

the teachers with a progressive, extended professional orientation but

are less progressive with respect to instruction and the goals of

education and also have a less extended orientation towards the school

organization.

Traditional, restricted professional orientation (Cluster 5): These

teachers have a traditional orientation towards instruction (transmission

of knowledge) and the goals of education (qualification). A progressive

orientation is not encountered among them. With regard to the

school organization, their orientation is restricted (main focus on the

classroom).


Indifferent, restricted professional orientation (Cluster 6): These teachers

appear to have an indifferent orientation towards instruction and the goals

of education when compared to other teachers. With regard to the school

organization, their orientation is restricted.

Religious OrientationsThe second research question concerns the religious orientations of teachers.

Similar to the question concerning their professional orientations, we were

more interested in their general religious orientations than in specific aspects

of these orientations. Therefore, we conducted a cluster analysis to explore the

combinations of religious orientations. We distinguished the two dimensions

of rootedness and openness. Rootedness refers to the extent to which people

are ‘‘rooted’’ in their original religious background. Openness refers to the

extent to which people adhere to a more general religious belief system

without any strong truth claims or relations to Christianity.

For this cluster analysis, we again used the hierarchical method of Ward

(1963). The scores from the rootedness and openness scales were used. A

solution with four clusters was chosen to obtain the same number of

respondents in each cluster and maximum discrimination between the

clusters. ANOVA was used to test for differences between the clusters on

the two scales. The mean scores and standardized mean scores for the four

clusters of teachers are presented in Table 4.

As can be seen, the standardized scores for the clusters in Table 4 allow us

to indeed distinguish four different types of teachers with respect to their

Table 4. Mean Scores and Standardized Mean Scores� for Different Clusters of Teachers onScales Measuring Different Religious Orientations.

Total N¼ 358 Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4(N¼ 85) (N¼ 119) (N¼ 112) (N¼ 42)

Rootedness 2.65 4.00 2.52 4.64�.697 .712 �.828 1.39

(þ) (�) (þ) (�)

Openness 3.42 2.41 2.37 3.94.790 �.481 �.536 1.45(�) (þ) (þ) (�)

Note. 1¼ strongly agree and 5¼ strongly disagree. Because the direction from high scores tolow scores is from 1 to 5, the (�) and (þ) differ from the � and þ signs accompanyingthe mean scale scores.


religious orientations. The four clusters of teachers can be characterized

according to their positions on the two scales. The predicate ‘‘low’’ (�) for a

cluster of teachers means that these teachers agree less with the orientation

than other teachers. The predicate ‘‘high’’ (þ) for a cluster means that these

teachers agree more with the orientation than other teachers. To determine the

relative positions of the different clusters on the two scales, the standardized

mean scores were thus used.

The results of the preceding cluster analyses can be placed in a scheme

(Fig. 1). The vertical line refers to the extent of openness and the horizontal

line refers to the extent of rootedness.

The clusters can be described in terms of the combinations of orientations

encountered in the sample. The different combinations of religious ori-

entations can be characterized as follows:

Orthodox orientation (Cluster 1): Compared to the others, these teachers

have a low score on openness and a high score on rootedness. This

indicates a strong commitment to their own Christian religion and no

commitment to other religions. They are well-rooted but with no openness

to other religions.

Liberal orientation (Cluster 2): These teachers have a high score for

openness and a low score for rootedness. This indicates a weak com-

mitment to the Christian religion and an openness to other religions at the

same time.

Dialogic orientation (Cluster 3): These teachers have a high score for

openness and a high score for rootedness. These teachers have a strong

Fig. 1. Religious orientations on the dimensions of openness and rootedness.


commitment to both the Christian religion and other religions as well. They

are well-rooted in their own religion and open to others.

Indifferent orientation (Cluster 4): These teachers have a low score for

openness and a low score for rootedness. They lack both a commitment to

the Christian religion and a commitment to other religions.

Morally Critical IncidentsThe third research question concerns the reaction intentions of the teachers in

response to the morally critical incidents. In Table 5, the intended reactions of

the teachers to the seven morally critical incidents are summarized. The

teachers were allowed to choose more than one reaction intention, so the

percentages may sum to over 100%. Based on the content of the vignettes

presenting morally critical incidents, we can differentiate 1 to 3 as concerned

with fundamental life/death issues and incidents 4 to 7 as concerned with

social issues.

The results show that teachers would generally not ignore morally critical

incidents, with the exception of the second situation (i.e., pupil’s father is

terminally ill). Virtually none of the teachers would ignore situation one (i.e.,

pupil’s death) or situation five (i.e., racism). The situation which the teachers

would ignore most frequently was the fourth situation (i.e., that involving an

anti-refugee remark). The mean results show that teachers tend to ignore

situations of illness and death more often than social issues.

Teachers also tended to refer more frequently in situations of illness and

death than in situations involving social issues. Teachers referred most

frequently in the second situation (i.e., pupil’s father is terminally ill). With

Table 5. Reaction Intentions of Teachers in Response to Morally Critical Incidents.

Moral dilemma: sit. 1� sit. 2 sit. 3 sit. 4 sit. 5 sit. 6 sit. 7Reaction-intention

Ignore 1.8% 39.9% 10.0% 9.1% 1.0% 4.1% 7.5%Refer 28.4% 41.5% 19.7% 9.0% 30.1% 15.2% 27.2%Classroom discussion 89.8% 23.6% 79.6% 81.6% 67.6% 65.6% 64.2%Personal conversation

with individual pupil52.1% 59.7% 56.1% 54.4% 73.2% 69.9% 70.3%

Note. �Situation 1: Sudden death of a pupil; Situation 2: Father of a pupil is terminally ill;Situation 3: Pupil with serious disease; Situation 4: Refugees; Situation 5: Racism;Situation 6: Sexism; Situation 7: Poverty.


regard to the incidents involving social issues, the teachers would most often

refer in situations five (i.e., racism) and seven (i.e., poverty) and least often

refer in the fourth situation (i.e., that involving an anti-refugee remark).

The teachers report that they would initiate a discussion in the classroom in

most of the situations, with again the exception of the second situation (i.e.,

pupil’s father is terminally ill). Of the situations involving social issues, the

teachers would be most likely to initiate a classroom discussion in situation

four (i.e., that involving an anti-refugee remark).

As can be seen, teachers tend to prefer a personal conversation with the

individual pupil for almost all of the morally critical incidents. Apparently

teachers believe that this kind of behavior may solve the problem in the best

and/or most efficient manner. Teachers tend to initiate a personal conversation

with the individual pupil least in situation four (i.e., anti-refugee remark).

Overall, we can conclude that teachers would tend to do something

themselves in response to most of the morally critical incidents. We can also

conclude that the reaction intentions of the teachers clearly differed depending

on the type of situation. Tirri (1999) has also recently concluded that teachers

tend to do something themselves in response to morally critical incidents and

that their problem-solving strategies also tend to be case-specific under such

circumstances.

Relations Between Professional and Religious Orientationsand Reaction Intentions of TeachersAll significant relations between the professional orientations and reaction

intentions of the teachers are reported in Table 6. The cross-tabulation

analyses show significant relations for only three reaction intentions:

classroom discussion in situation one (pupil’s death; N¼ 396; Cramer’s

V¼.19; p< .05); ignoring in situation two (pupil’s father is terminally ill; N¼316; Cramer’s V¼.21; p< .05); and personal conversation with individual

pupil in situation three (pupil with serious illness; N¼ 287; Cramer’s V¼.25;

p< .01). Significant relations between the professional orientations and

reaction intentions of teachers were thus found for life or death issues but not

for morally critical incidents referring to social issues.

With regard to classroom discussion in the case of the death of a pupil

(situation 1), the results show that those teachers with a traditional, restricted

orientation (type 5) would be less likely to initiate a classroom discussion than

other teachers under such circumstances. Similar results are found with regard

to situation 2, the terminal illness of a father: When compared to other


teachers, those with a traditional, restricted orientation (type 5) and those with

an indifferent, restricted orientation (type 6) would be more likely to ignore

the situation. With regard to situation 3, the illness of a pupil, the results again

show those teachers with a more traditional orientation (types 5 and 6) to be

less inclined to start a personal conversation with the pupil on the topic; those

teachers with a moderately progressive, moderately extended orientation (type

4) were even less likely to start a conversation under such circumstances. In

contrast, those teachers with a clearly progressive, extended orientation (type

2) would be likely to start a personal conversation. All in all, the results

support our assumptions about the relations between the professional

orientations of teachers and their behavior during morally critical incidents:

Teachers with a more progressive, extended orientation tend to behave more

actively than teachers with a more traditional, restricted orientation.

In Table 7, the significant relations found between the religious orientations

of the teachers and their reaction intentions are shown.

Only two significant relations were found: relatively more teachers with an

indifferent or dialogic orientation would initiate a classroom discussion in

situation 4 (anti-refugee remark; N¼ 311; Cramer’s V¼.19; p< .05) and

fewer of the teachers with an indifferent or dialogic orientation would simply

ignore situation 4 (N¼ 243; Cramer’s V¼.19; p< .05). Significant relations

between the religious orientations and reaction intentions of the teachers were

thus only found for situation 4. This finding supports our assumption that

particularly those teachers with a weakly rooted religious orientation

(indifferent) will behave more actively in response to morally critical

Table 6. Relations Between Professional Orientations and Reaction Intentions of Teachers.

Overall Prof. Prof. Prof. Prof. Prof. Prof.Mean type 1� type 2 type 3 type 4 type 5 type 6

% classroom discussion in 89.8% 91.3% 96.4% 87% 91.7% 77% 91.4%situation 1 (pupil’s death)

% ignoring in situation 39.9% 36.7% 38.1% 32.8% 28.1% 57.4% 51.1%2 (pupil’s father is terminally ill)

% personal conversation 56.1% 55.9% 81.6% 64.7% 40.4% 51.2% 51.2%with individual pupil in situation 3(pupil with serious illness)

Note. �Type 1: broad, extended; Type 2: progressive, extended; Type 3: progressive,moderately extended; Type 4: moderately progressive, moderately extended; Type5: traditional, restricted; and Type 6: indifferent, restricted.


incidents than teachers with a strongly rooted religious orientation (orthodox).

The indifferent and orthodox orientations both are weakly open. With regard to

the liberal and dialogic orientation, which are both strongly open, the teachers

with a strongly rooted religious orientation (dialogic) will behave more

actively in response to morally critical incidents than teachers with a weakly

rooted religious orientation (liberal). These results show that the differences

between teachers’ reaction intentions during critical incidents can be

understood by religious orientations in terms both of rootedness and openness.

CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION

We started this article by stressing the increasing importance of the moral

dimension of teaching which is complicated in the current context of

secularization, individualization and fragmentation of value systems. As a

consequence, teachers are faced with a difficult task: They are expected,

among other things, to react actively in morally critical incidents. The results

of this study indicate that teachers consider the moral aspects as discussed in

this study as a part of their work, for which they feel responsible, and on which

they actively react. In most morally critical incidents, teachers tend to have a

classroom or personal conversation instead of ignoring or referring pupils to

other people. In this study we only focused on reaction intentions. In further

research, it would be interesting to explore more in detail what teachers do in

classroom or personal conversations in terms of value communication. Which

values do they use? Do they really discuss values or do they tend to avoid

discussing them? In other words, considering the current Western context, do

they have problems managing their moral role? These questions seem to be

relevant to explore in further research.

Table 7. Relations Between Religious Orientations and Reaction Intentions of Teachers.

Overall Phil. Phil. Phil. Phil.Mean type 1� type 2 type 3 type 4

% classroom discussion in situation 4 80.4% 70.9% 77% 88.5% 88.9%(anti-refugee remark)

% ignore in situation 4 (anti-refugee 9.5% 14.3% 13.9% 4.2% 0%remark)

Note. �Type 1: Orthodox orientation; Type 2: liberal orientation; Type 3: dialogic orientation;and Type 4: indifferent orientation.


This study focused on teachers’ professional and religious orientations in

relation to their reaction intentions during morally critical incidents. The main

assumption was that these orientations constitute a relevant source for

understanding teachers’ behavior in such situations. More specific, we

assumed teachers with a progressive extended professional orientation to react

more actively to morally critical incidents than teachers with a traditional

restricted professional orientation. Furthermore, with regard to the religious

orientations, we expected teachers with a strongly open and weakly rooted

religious orientation to react more actively to morally critical incidents than

teachers with a weakly open and strongly rooted religious orientation.

The results supported both of these hypotheses. With regard to the

professional orientations of the teachers, those with a traditional restricted

orientation or an indifferent restricted orientation undertook relatively less

classroom discussion than their colleagues in response to morally critical

incidents. Those teachers with a progressive extended orientation were found

to be particularly likely to start a personal conversation with the individual

pupil during morally critical incidents. The professional orientations only

showed significant relations with the incidents concerning life and death

issues. No significant relations were found between the professional

orientations of the teachers and their reaction intentions to morally critical

incidents involving social issues.

With regard to the religious orientations of the teachers, more of the

teachers with an indifferent or dialogic orientation would initiate a classroom

discussion than the other teachers in response to an anti-refugee remark. These

same teachers were also less likely to ignore the same morally critical incident

than those teachers with an orthodox or liberal orientation. The religious

orientations of teachers showed no significant relations with the morally

critical incidents concering life and death issues. As reported, these relations

between religious orientations and reaction intentions are differential:

rootedness made a difference between the weakly open orientations (orthodox

and indifferent), and openness made a difference between the weakly

rootedness orientations (liberal and dialogic).

These results seem to indicate that teachers’ religious orientations matter in

how they tend to behave in morally critical incidents. As mentioned in the

introduction, Western society has strongly secularized, but this study

nevertheless shows that teachers’ religious orientations still play a role. So,

the results suggest that the more fundamental orientations towards life can

provide more insight into teachers’ behavior in morally critical incidents.


As mentioned in the theoretical background, there is much research available

with regard to relations between teachers’ professional orientations and their

behavior (cf. Kelchtermans, 1993; Nias, 1989), but research with regard to

religious orientations is absent. At least our study suggests that these kinds of

orientations towards life should be taken into consideration in further research.

Two additional reflections can now be made. First, although it appeared that

religious orientation matters, only a few significant relations between the

religious orientations and reaction intentions of the teachers were detected. A

possible explanation could be the way religious orientation is measured in this

study. We distinguished two dimensions (openness and rootedness) which are

possibly too general to explain differences in teachers’ reaction intentions in

morally critical incidents. This is in keeping with Oser and Althof (1993,

p. 254), who observed the following with regard to the prediction of behavior by

ethical principles: ‘‘having subscribed to ‘justice’ as a principle does not mean

that one knows the just course of action in a given, complicated situation.’’

Second, in this study, we presented artificial morally critical incidents

(vignettes). We did not ask teachers to mention or discuss morally critical

incidents from their own work. In addition to this, we measured the teachers’

behavioral intentions as opposed to their actual behavior or interviewing them

about their reactions to such morally critical incidents in the past. In other

words, the validity of the present results remains to be seen. The degree to

which the vignettes reflect real life and the degree to which the reaction

intentions of the teachers reflect real behavior must still be determined.

The results of this study show the professional and religious orientations of

teachers to explain some critical differences in their reaction intentions. It is

therefore important that the different orientations of teachers be taken into

account in future research and that those orientations which appear to be

particularly important for the functioning of teachers be identified and

examined in greater detail.

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