Ethical dilemmas faced by masters’ educational psychology students in fieldwork practice

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)Abstract: Corsini (2002) describes an ethical dilemma as a situation in which moral claims conflict with one another; a problematic value-orientated problem that seems to have no acceptable solution; a choice between equally unsatisfactory alternatives. As part of the Professional Practice module, students are required to do a set number of hours at a practical site. The above mentioned practical sites are usually within a school setting. These students often find themselves at ethical crossroads, not sure of which path is the correct one to follow. To address the complex challenges experienced regarding the implementation of ethical guidelines and the code of conduct, the intention of this study is to understand the dilemmas faced by Masters in educational psychology students whilst completing their practical training. Purposive sampling was used and the study consists of 45 final-year Masters in educational psychology students. A generic qualitative study, founded within an interpretive research paradigm, is used. Data was made available in the form of secondary data which consists of examination position papers written by final-year Masters in educational psychology students as part of their Professional Practice module. Given the nature of the data, thematic analysis was used as a way of identifying themes across the data. Data is then further analysed, where identified themes that could be placed under other themes are re-grouped. A total of thirteen themes are identified, with three themes being identified as being significant to the research question. These themes are: 1) acting in the best interest of the client, 2) confidentiality and 3) informed consent. This study could serve as a valuable tool for the institutions that are responsible for the training of educational psychologists as they will be able to gain insight into, and address, these shortcomings, by adapting their training in a way that will provide the opportunity for these ethical dilemmas to be addressed in more depth. Furthermore, it is suggested that training of a single or various ethical decision-making model/s form part of the Masters in educational psychology curriculum