Teachers’ moral dilemmas and professional ethics in high-stakes examination regimes in Ghana

High-stakes examination regimes exert significant pressures on teachers, often creating ethical tensions and moral dilemmas that affect classroom practices and professional decision-making. This study examines how teachers navigate these dilemmas and pressures, and how they influence professional ethics adherence and coping strategies in Junior and Senior High Schools across 16 regions in Ghana. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data from 950 teachers were analyzed to test hypothesized relationships among ethical tensions, accountability pressures, and pedagogical decision-making. Findings indicate that moral dilemmas significantly shape teaching practices, with pressures to improve student performance positively associated with adherence to professional ethics ( r = .71), while conflicts around instructional autonomy and assessment practices negatively related to conformity to procedural norms ( r = − .63). Examination-related pressures were found to undermine ethical adherence, with high-stakes assessment pressure negatively linked to integrity in teaching ( r = − .61). Mediation analyses revealed that adherence to professional ethics partially mediates the relationship between examination pressures and teachers’ coping strategies, with proportion mediated values ranging from 0.25 to 0.32. These results illuminate the ethical and accountability challenges inherent in high-stakes assessment regimes, demonstrating how teachers negotiate professional obligations to ensure pedagogical survival. The study contributes theoretically and empirically to understanding teacher decision-making under pressure and underscores the need for interventions that support ethical judgment and adaptive coping strategies in high-stakes educational contexts.