Ethical concerns about teachers and teaching occur in a variety of contexts and can be thought of in several ways. These are some examples on how to measure the ethical behavior of teachers at university level.

The education codes of many states require that teachers at the university level be persons of good character and good social behavior. Most states also permit teachers to be dismissed for unethical conduct. States also forbid particular forms of misconduct, such as sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and drug abuse, among others behavior and their violation may be grounds for dismissal.

What counts as good character or conduct can be a contentious matter. In past decades, teachers might have been dismissed not only for drunkenness, homosexuality, unwed pregnancy, or cohabitation, but also for myriad other offenses against the moral code of their community. Some of these may still be gray areas; however, in recent years, courts have been inclined to insist that actionable immoral conduct is job-related, providing some protection for the private lives of teachers. Here a particularly contentious matter is whether being a role model is part of the job of teachers, because this expectation can expand public authority over the lives of teachers. In certain cases, as when teachers discuss controversial matters in class or employ controversial teaching methods, they may be protected by appropriate legislation. Teachers are also likely to have significant due-process rights. Dismissal for immoral conduct is most likely when the teacher has committed a felony, in cases of inappropriate sexual advances toward students, or in cases of some other types of abuse. In this last case, teachers may also have a duty to report suspected misconduct by other teachers.

The kinds of misconduct dealt with by the law are usually acts that are (or can be viewed as) unethical in any context. Teachers, like others, are expected to not steal, kill, commit assault, abuse their position, or engage in sexual harassment. Although the definition of immoral conduct in the law has not become coextensive with violations of criminal law, there is little in the meaning of immoral conduct that is distinctive to teachers or teaching.

Teachers should promote the freedom to learn, requires equal opportunity, protects students against disparagement, and protects privacy. The freedom-to-learn should prohibit teachers from preventing student inquiry, denying students access to diverse points of view, and distorting subject matter. The prohibition against distortion of subject matter falls short of a prohibition of indoctrination.

Teachers shall exert every effort to raise professional standards, to promote a climate that encourages the exercise of professional judgment, to achieve conditions which attract persons worthy of the trust to careers in education and to assist in preventing the practice of the profession by unqualified persons.

Ethical principles should prohibit misrepresenting one's own qualifications or those of others teachers, prohibit assisting unqualified persons to teach, and prohibit the defamation of colleagues.

The regulations in force should promote ethical ideals and principles. The first is what might be termed the ethics of inquiry. The second area might be called the civic ethic. That is the regulations should include those ideals and ethical principles that regulate the public conduct of teachers and their ethical practice of education. A reason for this is that one goal of education is the creation of good and responsible professionals.

It has been common in the philosophy of education to begin an inquiry into the aims of education by asking questions such as "What is the nature of the good life?" and "What kinds of societies promote better lives?". Such questions fall within the range of the subject matter of ethics. Answers to these questions can provide part of the framework for building a comprehensive vision of education rooted, and they may guide the professional practice of teachers.

The civic ethic provides conceptions that are relevant, not only to teachers' classroom practice, but to a wide-ranging areas of educational policy. For example, it has been common in recent years to claim that equality of opportunity should emphasize equal educational outcomes instead of equal access or equal inputs. Assume that achievement can be measured by test scores. What pattern of test scores would be desired, and how should resources be distributed to attain it? Consider three possibilities: Emphasize increasing average test scores. Possible objections are that this is consistent with considerable disparity in levels of achievement. Moreover, average scores might be increased by focusing resources on the most able at the expense of the least able; Emphasize the achievement of the least advantaged or less able. Possible objections are that such an approach might lead to significant investment in the education of students where there will be only modest return, and resources will be used inefficiently; Emphasize getting all who are able above some threshold that defines minimal ability to participate in their society. This approach may lead to difficulties similar to the previous one.

These are competing principles for distributing educational resources. Although they concern, such matters as the state or school district budgets, in fact, they may also concern the distribution of teacher time. They shed light on such questions as whether teachers should spend disproportionate time with those who are most needful or with those who will make the most progress. These various approaches are analogous to principles of distributive justice that are widely discussed in philosophical literature. The first is a utilitarian principle emphasizing the maximization of good outcomes. The second seeks to maximize the welfare of those who occupy the least advantaged positions in society. The third is a threshold view emphasizing getting everyone above some defined level. These principles illustrate the ways in which moral conceptions can inform policy and practice.

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