Higher Education Practitioners and Their Professional Ethics: A Qualitative Content Analysis
Abstract
This qualitative empirical article explores the ways that higher education professionals in the United States make sense of their professional ethics in relation to their role at the institution. It applies sensemaking theory as the theoretical framework to explore 65 professional ethics statements from a wide range of administrators with differing experiences and disciplines. Using qualitative content analysis as the methodology, this study developed four themes related to how administrators make sense of their professional ethics. Those themes include creating a bricolage of different codes of ethics, incorporating personal identity and experience, evolving with their respective roles, and finding ethical models and foils.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Ethics in Business and Education
Higher Education Governance and Development
Education
Philosophy
and Society
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Academic Ethics
- Publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 2
- Publication date
- 18 March 2026
- Language
- EN