Ethical Pattern of Faculty Members in Iran\'s Higher Education

Abstract

Introduction: Academic faculty members need to emphasize ethical principles in order to improve higher education, with the understanding of this importance, the current research was conducted with the aim of designing the ethical model of academic faculty members in Iran's higher education. Material & Methods: This research is a type of qualitative study that uses foundational data theory. The participants, including experts and faculty members of the country's public universities, who were responsible for the promotion of academic members, were selected as key informants through a targeted sampling method of 45 people. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The reliability and validity of the data were obtained from the two methods of reviewing the participants and recoding by experts. Data were analyzed by open, central and selective coding. Results: The results showed that the moral model of faculty members in Iran's higher education is explained in 10 main categories and 27 subcategories. Major and core categories in the form of 6 dimensions of causal conditions including (individual factors, organizational factors), core (cultural-educational, educational ethics, research ethics, scientific-executive), background conditions (higher education policies, moral activism), intervening conditions (environmental factors), strategies (micro level - university, macro level - higher education) and consequences (individual and organizational) were elevated to a higher abstract level and finally the research paradigm model was presented. Conclusion: The regulations for the promotion of academic staff members in Iran require a detailed revision of the content with an ethical and qualitative approach in order to make the indicators of the promotion regulations efficient and effective.

Keywords

• ethical principles
• higher education
• faculty members
• promotion system