Public interests and concerns often create dilemmas for school principals. As such moral dilemmas are the case for schools as places marked by social, economic, cultural and political diversity. The purpose of this paper is to look at how Appalachian school leaders use moral literacy to make decisions when facing ethical issues?,The data for this study emerged from interviews conducted with ten principals. The principals interviewed represent a purposeful sample of practitioners within the Appalachian region of Southern Ohio, using group characteristic sampling.,Principals’ responses varied in their depth of familiarity and comfort with moral literacy. The abductive analysis yielded several thematic units, classified using both emergent patterns and a priori codes. The overarching themes that emerged from this analysis concerned what an ethical dilemma is, what it means to be a morally literate leader, moral dimensions of leadership, and the value integration of doing ethics and being ethical.,This study relies strictly on the participants’ personal conceptualization of moral literacy and the ethical paradigms it presupposes. As a qualitative study, the findings are based primarily on the participants’ perception of and the researcher’s interpretation of the complexities and ambiguities in reading ethical dilemmas.,To effectively accomplish the moral work of the principalship requires that school leaders be morally literate, understanding the integrated nature of ethical paradigms.,The findings of this study continue to disclose the manner in which practicing principals define what an ethical dilemma is and moves us closer to understanding how practitioners frame moral literacy within their practice yet outside of exposure to clearly defined theoretical frameworks.

中文翻译：

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道德素养与学校领导

公共利益和关注常常给学校校长带来困境。因此，在以社会，经济，文化和政治多样性为标志的学校中，道德上的困境便是如此。本文的目的是研究阿巴拉契亚学校的领导者在面对道德问题时如何利用道德素养来做出决定？本研究的数据来自与十位校长的访谈。接受访谈的校长代表了俄亥俄州南部阿巴拉契亚地区有目的的从业人员样本，使用小组特征抽样。校长的回答因其对道德素养的熟悉度和舒适度而异。归纳分析得出了几个主题单元，使用紧急模式和先验代码对它们进行了分类。该分析产生的总体主题涉及什么是道德困境，成为有文化素养的领导者意味着什么，领导者的道德层面以及做人与做人的价值整合。该研究严格依赖于参与者的道德素养的个人概念化及其预设的道德范式。作为一项定性研究，研究结果主要基于参与者对阅读道德困境的复杂性和含糊性的理解以及研究人员的理解。要有效完成校长的道德工作，要求学校领导者具有道德素养，理解和理解。道德范式的综合性质。