Chapter 6 Moral Conflicts of Mexican Public School Principals in Political Context: Loyalties and Consequences

This chapter identifies and describes the decision-making practices of Mexican public primary school principals when faced with moral conflicts in the exercise of their daily activities. These practices are understood as ethical management and planning, implying moral agency and the capacity for reflection and moral responsibility. An analysis of principals' narrative accounts of the ethical dilemmas they face and the reasoning they follow in order to arrive at viable solutions reveals social relations and cultural processes involved in both the generation and the solution of these conflicts. Noteworthy are the shared understandings that take into account unavoidable teacher union hierarchies and negotiation processes. One of the unforeseen and unnoticed consequences of a resulting emphasis on teacher solidarity is that students' perspective and position are rendered invisible. The discussion points to implications for the achievement of educational quality and equity, and to the possibility of promoting positive change through principals' moral awareness.The story, which is never ethically neutral, emerges as the first laboratory of moral judgment.Paul Ricoeur (1996, p. 138)