Teachers' personal opinions, community involvement and teaching in social studies. : An interview study on ethical issues for professional social studies teachers at upper secondary schools.

To be a teacher is to exercise authority. You control the application of the curriculum and you give out grades of high administrative value. You control both the development and the future of your pupils. Therefore this paper is focusing on how social science teachers think about and plan for controversial topics and the influence of their own opinions and values on education. Questions that are always there when it comes to talking about society. It’s an ethical discussion seeking answers on how professional teachers adapt their education to the expectations of the role they serve. What type of ethical and didactical decisions do they have to make? Have their personal views and choices led to issues with students and parents? Ultimately the teachers involved in this interview study came off as the great professionals you would expect and want in teaching. So the concerns shown around influence and bias were not much present. They often leant on the curriculum whenever they planned something, and if ever a question arose regarding the benefits of introducing material, they were then proficient at explaining how or why it was or was not an issue to use the material. The key point being to reflect upon their decisions before making them. The conclusion of the paper is consequently that the teachers in this particular study know how to separate their personal role from their work role, which ultimately is an unexciting but positive result. Proving the value of being a professional, and how well the universities prepare a social science teacher for one of the most damaging concerns of their job, inherent biases.