Pre-service teacher preparedness in ethical decision-making: understanding the personal-professional ethics tension in practicum experiences

Pre-service teacher practicums constitute critical developmental contexts for professional skill application and ethical reasoning development. This systematic literature review examines the ethical dilemmas encountered by pre-service teachers during practicum experiences, with particular focus on understanding why these dilemmas are uniquely challenging for novice educators. Following PRISMA guidelines, 14 publications (2012–2022) from peer-reviewed, English-language journals were systematically analysed through Rest’s four-component model of moral development. The analysis reveals that ethical dilemmas primarily stem from tensions between personal ethical frameworks and professional expectations, rather than from insufficient knowledge of professional codes. Three primary manifestations emerged: theory-practice disconnections reflecting value conflicts, supervising teacher expectations conflicting with personal beliefs, and institutional culture misalignments. These tensions implicate all four components of Rest’s model, namely moral sensitivity, judgement, motivation, and character, particularly when personal values conflict with institutional demands. The study advances understanding of why ethical challenges contribute to early-career teacher attrition by demonstrating how unresolved personal-professional ethical tensions generate moral distress. Teacher education programmes must explicitly address personal-professional ethical integration rather than treating professional ethics as separable from personal values, with direct implications for targeted interventions strengthening teacher retention outcomes.