Professional Ethics in Welfare Work and Education:Nordic Perspectives

Abstract

This anthology illuminates current research on professional ethics in the education and working life of welfare professionals. Professionalism, values and ethical perception within social education, teaching and healthcare are the core of the welfare societies. Welfare professionals’ capability to navigate within the complex political and institutional frameworks surrounding their work environments and their competence to act with strong critical ethical awareness and integrity is the subject matter of the eighteen chapters of the anthology. The authors provide research-based perspectives on the education of welfare professionals towards a complex work life where the dichotomy between ethical standards and realities of practice can lead to ethical pressure and moral distress. The anthology is structured in three parts: 1) Professional ethics in education and practice, 2) Competencies and values in working life, and 3) Ethics, care and welfare – each presenting novel empirical research results combined with critical theoretical perspectives on professionalism within a prism of political structures and societal challenges