As educational psychologists (EPs) we are continually presented with difficult and ambiguous situations. Our professional body requires that the decisions we make are firmly founded on ethical principles. It is all the more regrettable, therefore, that ethics is often overlooked in our professional training. As professionals, we would argue that we should have ethical responses that have been arrived at through an analytical enquiry on a conscious, rational level. Four EPs from one local education authority (LEA) selected a current ethical dilemma from their work for use as a way of exploring ethical issues. All four cases involve the application of the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, fidelity and self-interest. In addition two of the case studies were analysed using Bond’s (2000) six-step problem-solving model. The complexity of the issues raised by the case studies underlines the need for psychology services to explore ethical decision-making in a more systematic way.
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