The Codification of Ethics in Education in Slovenia 

Karolina Babič and Tomaž Grušovnik

Summary:  The authors of the paper investigate the prevalence and forms of the codification of ethics in Slovenian education. The methodological approach is based on a qualitative text analysis where 84 internal acts, codes of ethics and normative regulations in the field of education were analysed. The research showed that in addition to the few codes of ethics explicitly designated as such, there are other ways of codifying ethics in school documents, and that the codification of ethics in education is most commonly expressed in the form of lists of values, the application of which is further prescribed by lists of more detailed behavioural guidelines. Certain problems arise from the codes of ethics that predominantly serve a prescriptive function; moreover, such a prescriptive form of codes of ethics is contrary to the concept of teacher autonomy and professional autonomy in education. The paper also provides recommendations for a more process-oriented approach, in which the autonomous subject is recognised as the agent of codes of ethics and the capacity for critical ethical judgment as its key strength; and the code of ethics appears not as a list of rules of conduct, but rather as a guide to ethical practice.