The intense social changes that occur on an international level, urge any thinker to reconsider some fundamental questions such as “what is right to do? “or “how do I react to this? “These questions relate to the principles and moral values that guide our behaviour, in other words our morality. These morality issues pose a current and diachronic subject under consideration in the wider field of Pedagogy, since the social aspect of a teacher’s profession   reasonably entails a number of moral issues.

     Since the 90s several surveys have been made around the moral aspects and dilemmas that music teachers face during their work (Abrahams& Head, 2005). According to Regleski (2014) issues of such nature should be dealt through a “moral resistance”, the criteria of which could be perceived in the light of the three most known theories of Moral Philosophy (Utilitarianism, Theory of Deontology and Theory of Virtue). In the same spirit Elliot & Silverman (2019) argue that the professional future of the music teachers should aspire to the cultivation of their moral sensitivity, so they are in the position to impart these moral values to their students, when need be, with the aid of the suitable pedagogical techniques.

     In this framework, a qualitive research has been made through semi-structured interviews. The aim of this research was to note down and systematically -if possible-categorize the moral dilemmas of the music teachers in public primary and secondary schools, in correlation with their working experience. By citing these dilemmas, there has been made an attempt to investigate their types and frequency, as well as the degree of interference of personal to professional morality and the need to establish a Moral Code. 

     The results indicate that the dilemmas fall into two main categories: Moral dilemmas with the property of a musicians and moral dilemmas with the property of a teacher. In the first category, there have been dilemmas that concern the selection of teaching material, the intervention of third parties in artistic matters, the inclusion and assessment of students. In the second category, there have been dilemmas in reference to work ethics, the student-teacher relation management, and the interventions of third parties in the educational work. Music educators mentioned that the moral dilemmas are a frequent phenomenon and challenge in the everyday life of the professional life. As to their judgement and decision making, working experience did not seem to be an influential factor, since teacher's moral values seem to play a more pivotal role, while establishing a Moral Code is a field of great controversy.

      Since there has been no equivalent research of recording and studying the moral dilemmas of music teachers in Greece, the specific subject matter could be useful to the academic community, so as to prepare future, or even present, teachers in dealing with these matters. Through this contemplation they could enhance the quality of their decisions and could help them form undivided moral criteria that would render possible the overall wellbeing of  the educational community.

• Πλουραλισμός και ιεραρχίες αξιών στη μουσική εκπαίδευση
• Μουσική αγωγή, κοινωνική δικαιοσύνη και ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα

Nasia Konsta was born in Athens in 1980. She graduated from the Music Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and continued her postgraduate studies in the Kapodistrian University of Athens under the subject “Music Education in formal and informal environments”. At the same time, she studied the piano, the cello and Advanced Music Theory. Since 2009 she has been working as a substitute music teacher in primary schools and in schools for children with special needs. Her recent research interest focuses on moral dilemmas and moral judgements of Music Educators in Public Primary and Secondary Education.