The Role of Teacher as a Moral Agent
A Conceptual Framework for Teachers’ Professional Ethics Development
Teguh Ibrahim, Babang Robandi, Mamat Supriatna and Pupun Nuryani
Pedagogic Department, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Setianudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Moral Agency, Teachers Code of ethics, Teacher’s Development, Personality Competency.
Abstract: This paper aims to analyze the moral agency theory holistically and discuss implication the development of
teachers’ professional conduct education. The research method used is the concept analyzation with generic
analyzation design or the integrative review. Research data sources are the result of research articles on moral
agency and the development of ethics of teaching profession gathered by documentation studies and reviewed
systematically. The results of this research conclude that the concept of teachers as moral agency can be
understood as the double condition which covers the teacher as: 1) exemplary figures who perform
professional acts ethically; and 2) as moral educators who teach the virtues of prosperity to the students so
that they become human being with character. The structure of the moral agency building within the scope
of the teaching profession consists of four components, namely: moral sensitivity, moral consideration, moral
motivation, and moral action. This paper is expected to provide significant benefits for the development of
literature on the theory of teachers’ competency development in the areas of personality, ethics, and morality
competency.
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
In the middle of 2017, the profile of teachers in
Indonesia cannot be fully ideal. Public expectation of
teacher service in education is still not fully fulfilled.
It is characterized by some of the contradictory
phenomena carried out by some of teachers in
Indonesia and raises the public's disappointment on
the profile of teachers in Indonesia. Referring to the
findings of Kesuma (2016) stated that "a lot of
negative news about the primary school teachers,
among other things, a running text on national TV:
400 works of the promotion of elementary school
teachers in X Province is 'piracy'; around 2,000
elementary school teachers of PLPG (Education and
Training of Teaching Profession) participants from
the total number of tens thousands participants in an
area of the organizers did not pass the UK test
(competency test)". Kesuma (2016) findings
represent an unsatisfactory profile of teachers in
Indonesia. The case of 'piracy' works reflects the
unethical behavior of the teacher who did it for
getting promotion, while the magnitude of teacher
failure rates in the PLPG Examination reflects the
weakness of the teacher's independence and
persistence to become a learner.
Other findings reported, retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/indonesia "in the year of 2017
occurred a case of suicide of a vocational school
student in North Sumatra by poisoning himself after
allegedly intimidated by unscrupulous teachers after
uploading alleged leaks exam answers on social
media accounts. This case reopens the debate over the
graduation system that is applied on student and
school" (Artharini, 2017). The case proves that some
teachers in Indonesia have not fully upheld their
ethical values in carrying out their profession, the key
leakage action and intimidation action against
students is a reflection of non-ethical or immoral
actions.
Unethical actions done by some teachers become
phenomenon of concern and disappoint the
expectations of society on public services in the field
of education. Unscrupulous cases which are involving
teacher raise the concerns about the future profile of
future generations who are predicted to experience
more moral decadence. Associated with unethical
acts by teachers, Jahan and Islam (2014) explained
that:
268
Ibrahim, T., Robandi, B., Supriatna, M. and Nuryani, P.
The Role of Teacher as a Moral Agent - A Conceptual Framework for Teachers’ Professional Ethics Development.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 1, pages 268-276
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

Almost all scholars emphasize teachers’ ethical
responsibilities but many university teachers are
engaging in unethical behaviour in the form of
breaking their commitments to their profession and to
students. In curriculum development, classroom
teaching, conducting examinations and student
evaluation, publishing results, student-teacher
interaction, research and publications, teachers have
traditionally adopted unfair means whether
intentionally or unintentionally.
Refer to the findings of Jahan & Islam, it can be
concluded that unethical behavior was still likely to
arise in the life of teaching profession. It is caused by
the lack of attention on construction of ethics of
teaching profession. So far the development program
of teacher's competence is still pragmatic, focusing
only on the development of competence and teaching
skills.
Basically the described situation has represented
the crisis of teacher's identity. A study of teacher's
professional ethics is likes alienated in their lives. In
Strike and Ternasky (1995), education is still lacks of
"ethical language" or moral language that can help
teachers recognize, articulate, and communicate with
other fellow teachers about their moral complexity
and teaching ethics. Furthermore, Sockett and LePage
(2002) highlighted the current state of the teaching
profession which is concern because of the lack of
moral vocabulary. In this case, they propose that
teachers need a kind of "moral law" to provide a basis
for confidence in making ethical judgments that can
defeat intuition.
Referring to these problems, the authors
recommend a fundamental study about the
competence or the role of teachers as moral agency.
The study of moral agency is expected to strengthen
the identity of the teacher as an autonomous subject,
having the will and purpose in conducting his
profession ethically. Not only that, teacher also have
to install virtue values through moral education and
character, so that later the student can be a good
personality, tough, intelligent, and noble. This article
offers a conceptual framework on the moral agency
theory and its implications for the development of
teachers' professional conduct.
1.2 Research Question
Referring to the background of the problems that have
been described previously, the researchers found that
there are gap on the ethics and competence
development of teachers as moral agency on the
research professional development teachers. Then it
is hoped that this paper will be able to answer the
following questions:
 What is the meaning of a moral agency?
 What are the dimensions of moral agency in the
life of the teaching profession?
 What is the role of teacher as a moral agency?
The three questions will be answered by
describing it systematically on the part of the
theoretical framework and discussion.
2 THE FOUNDATION OF
PROFESIIONAL ETHICAL
THEORY
2.1 Study of Ethics for Teaching
Profession
Ethic is a fundamental discipline or study for
developing human resources. Bertens (2013)
describes that ethic has three definitions namely: first,
the word ‘ethic’ can be defined as moral values or
norms for the guidelines of individual or group in
managing their behavior. In a brief, this first
definition can be formulated as a “value system”
which is validated for both private and society.
Secondly, ethic is a collection of principles and moral
values in the scope of formal organization; it refers to
“ethic code”. In example, the teacher code of ethics is
a series of principles or moral values which is adhered
to the teacher. The third, ethic is a course about good
deed and bad deed. It is a discipline about ethical
beliefs which is applied on particular society and
become a material critical reflection for methodical
and systematically research. Ethic in this third
definition can be referred as moral philosophy. In this
study, ethic means rights and obligation of education
stakeholder, which is teacher; the applied moral
policy for taking decision of their profession; and the
relationship nature of between the teacher and
educational environment such as student, partner,
headmaster, the parents and the society itself.
Therefore, this study can be regarded as a study of
teachers' professional conduct education that refers to
the code of ethics of the teaching profession in
Indonesia.
Furthermore, in order to improve the functionality
of those 4 components of profession morality,
somehow it needs to plan a concept of ethic education
in teaching profession-critical consciousness based to
improve the competency of moral agency of teacher.
Since basically in a profession scope, a study on
The Role of Teacher as a Moral Agent - A Conceptual Framework for Teachers’ Professional Ethics Development
269

profession ethic is very fundamental. According to
Bebeau and Monson (2014) “the first purpose of ethic
teaching and learning in profession school is to
develop the professional skill, afterwards the second
purpose is to produce a professional who is able to
work collective well for advancing the common
good”. In other words, basically being a professional
does not only depend on skill and intellectuality, yet
how a professional conducts his assignment fully
dedicated and always spreading prosperity.
2.2 Teaching Profession Code of Ethics
Regarding to the code of ethics of teacher as a
professional position, because on the implementation
it demands certain specific skills through an exclusive
formal education which called Pendidikan Profesi
Guru (Teaching Profession Education), it cannot be
separated from the prevailing values. The legal values
and procedures that govern a teacher in behaving
towards students, peer teachers, society, and
government is called the teacher code of ethics. This
teaching profession code of ethics is the foundation
of moral ethics in order for teachers to carry out their
duties.
There are several reasons stated by Surya (2014)
on why a code of ethics in a profession is needed, they
are:
 To protect the profession in accordance with
the provisions and policies established by the
government based on applicable legislations.
This code of ethics will allow the profession to
self-regulate and perform its functions
automatically within the applicable
legislations;
 To control the possibility of disagreements in
the dispute of the executors. Thus the code of
ethics can maintain and enhance internal and
external stability of the profession;
 Protecting practitioners in the community
especially in regard to malpractice cases (false
practices). If the practice of a certain profession
is in line with the ethical lines, then the practice
can be considered to meet the standards;
 Protecting clients professionally from unlawful
practices.
Before the code of ethics of teachers formulated,
the history recorded PGRI (Indonesian Teacher's
Union). XVI Congress held on 3-8 July 1989 in
Jakarta has been established the Indonesian Teachers
Pledge with the following formula:
 We the Teachers of Indonesia, are the peoples'
educators who believe and serve the Almighty
God;
 We the Teachers of Indonesia, are the bearers
and implementers of the ideals and
Proclamation of Independence of the Republic
of Indonesia, defenders of the Pancasila and
loyal practitioners of the 1945 Constitution;
 We the Teachers of Indonesia, determined to
realize the national goals in the intellectual life
of the nation;
 We the Teachers of Indonesia, are united in one
organization: The Teachers Association of the
Republic of Indonesia, fostering the unity of
the nation;
 We the Teachers of Indonesia, upholding the
Code of Ethics of Indonesian Teachers as a
guideline of professional conduct in the
devotion to the Nation, the State and humanity.
Based on the Indonesian teacher's pledge above, it
can be concluded that teaching is a really noble job
because teachers carry a world and hereafter oriented
humanitarian mission. The teaching profession
requires one's strong will in fulfilling their duties to
always hold fast to the divine pillars, and belief in
God's rewards on the services of teachers that carry
the mission of humanity which is humanization. If we
take a closer look to the last Teachers Pledge,
Indonesian teachers promised to uphold the code of
ethics of Indonesian Teachers as a guide of their
professional conduct. In performing its profession,
teachers are guided by the norms applicable in the
teaching profession code of ethics.
According to Mars (2008), it is required an ethical
standard in instilling knowledge and skills to students
in schools. Teachers are required to be proficient in
making daily ethical decisions in order to plan,
implement, and evaluate learning. The rights and
obligations of teachers and students are guided
through the teaching profession code of ethics,
therefore Mars (2008) provides his views on the
teaching profession code of ethics into some points
namely teaching ethics, moral ethics, relationship
ethics between teachers and education councils,
relationship ethics between teachers and principals,
relationship ethics between teacher and student,
relationship ethics between school and private
industry.
The code of ethics of a profession is formulated
and mutually agreed upon by members of a
profession. Especially regarding to the Indonesian
teachers’ code of ethics, PGRI (Teachers' Association
of the Republic of Indonesia) has established the
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
270

teachers code of ethics as one of organization
complementary as stipulated in the articles of
Association and bylaws of PGRI. The following is the
Indonesian Teachers Code of Ethics, abbreviated as
KEGI (Kode Etik Guru Indonesia) by the decision of
the 8th PGRI Congress which took place on 21-25
November 1973.
INDONESIAN TEACHERS CODE OF
ETHICS
Indonesian teachers realize that education is a
field of devotion to God Almighty, the Nation, the
state, and humanity. Indonesian teachers who are
Pancasilaist and loyal to the 1945 Constitution are
also responsible for the realization of the ideals of
the Proclamation of 17 August 1945. Therefore,
the Indonesian Teacher is called to fulfill their
work by obeying the following principles.
1. Teachers vow to guide the learners to
form a true Pancasilaist Indonesian
2. Teachers possess and conduct
professional verity.
3. Teachers should make efforts to obtain
information about learners as materials to
teach and guide.
4. Teachers should be able to create a
teaching-learning atmosphere as well as
possible to support the success of the
process.
5. Teachers should maintain good
relationships with parents and
surrounding communities to foster their
participation and shared responsibility for
education
6. Teachers should personally and
collectively develop and improve the
quality and dignity of their profession.
7. Teachers should maintain professional
relationships, the spirit of brotherhood,
and social solidarity.
8. Teachers should collectively maintain
and improve the quality of PGRI as a
means of struggle and devotion.
9. Teachers should implement all
government policies in education.
Source: (Sur
y
a, 2014)
In its journey, PGRI continues to conduct
assessment along with the various demands that
developed in the field but still refers to the essence of
the Indonesian Teachers Code of Ethics that was
formulated for the first time. The essence of the
Indonesian Teachers Code of Ethics can be illustrated
as follows:
Figure 1: The essence of the Indonesian Teachers Code of
Ethics.
Referring to figure 1, it is understandable that the
teachers code of ethics provides a professional
guidance for teachers to be able to interact ethically
in various social relationships ranging from students,
parents or guardians, communities, schools, peers,
professional organizations and the government.
Teachers have a moral responsibility to always
maintain good relationships with all social
environments that are related to the life of the teacher.
Studies on the role of teachers as a moral agent will
clarify the role of teachers in applying the
professional code of ethics in everyday life.
3 RESEARCH METHODS
This research method is a concept of analysis method
along with generic analysis to identify the essential
meaning of a concept. The analysis isolates elements
which distinguish a concept from other words. The
result of the generic analysis is the clarity of a
concept. The indicator is the availability of
definitions and arguments which support the
meanings. Generic analysis design could be called as
integrative review. The method is conducted in some
steps starting from problem identification, literature
searching, evaluation and data analysis, and the last is
reporting (Whittemore & Knafl, 2005; Brady &
Asselin 2016).
 The problem is the need of conceptual
framework relates to a theory of moral agency
and Teachers’ Professional Ethics;
 Literature review applies article references
which are posted in a website that provides the
variety of trusted international publications
such as sciencedirect.com, SAGE publications,
ERIC journals. The literature searching uses
some keywords: moral agency, self-concept,
The Role of Teacher as a Moral Agent - A Conceptual Framework for Teachers’ Professional Ethics Development
271

self-regulation, critical consciousness,
teacher’s development, and ethical study;
 The evaluation data is being done through
article selection which supports literature
review of moral agency and Teachers’
Professional Ethics;
 Data analysis, the researchers adopt line
method by line coding (Corbin & Strauss,
2008). Researchers identify phrases, sentences
and themes relate to research review;
 Reporting, the last product from integrative
review, is the steady-state concept concerning
the role of teachers as a moral agent.
4 DISCUSSION AND
LABORATION
4.1 Describing Concept of Moral
Agency Theory as A Background
Study of Teacher Profession Ethic
To completely understand the concept of moral
agency, we may begin with understanding the nature
of human being as an autonomous creature, free, and
has consciousness to manage himself whether it is in
aspect of cognitive, affective, and intuitive in the
various life context. Ultimately, “agency”
characteristic is simply possessed by human. It is in
line with Taylor arguments in (Sugarman, 2005) that:
a person is a being who not only possesses self-
awareness and ‘who has understanding of self as an
agent’ (p.263), but, moreover, is ‘a special kind of
agent’ (p. 261) in that persons are agents for whom
things have characteristically human significance.
Furthermore, Freire (2001) adds that human is ‘a
historical being’, the author interpreted this term as a
human ability to arrange marks of his existence in
socio-cultural reality autonomously, human has
decision towards himself to reflect his experience as
well as setting up ethical goal of his life.
Human autonomy reflects its freedom of will
Berlin (2014) analyzes two concepts of freedom. In
negative view, freedom or independence is equal to
the absent of intervention from another party, the
adult persons are free as long as they are not interfered
by others, so that this freedom becomes relative,
ambiguous and non-ethical. In positive view, human
has his freedom when he is able to be what he should
be (normative), an ideal self. Tilaar (2012) states this
condition as ‘free but responsible’. The point of
Tilaar’s statement about freedom in frame of
responsibility shows that each of human behavior
should be based on moral consciousness, or can be
defined as conscience (Bertens, 2013) that guides
human spiritually to always do a good deed.
Based on the above elaboration, it can be
perceived that moral agency is a special spiritual
component of human. Moral agency is autonomy or
will of human to make a cause, control authority, and
the creator of moral behavior to consciously do a
good deed and prevent a bad deed. The moral agency
even becomes a life goal and pattern of behavior
which is willingly exerted with full integrity. The
definition is interpreted by the author from several
meanings of moral agency which are described by the
experts. Bandura (2002) stated in his article titled
“Selective moral disengagement in the exercise of
moral agency” that:
Moral agency has dual aspects manifested in both
the power to refrain from behaving inhumanely
and the proactive power to behave humanely.
Moral agency is embedded in a broader socio-
cognitive self-theory encompassing affective self-
regulatory mechanisms rooted in personal
standards linked to self-sanctions (Bandura,
2002).
According to Bandura, it can be understood that
mechanism process of self-regulation is inseparable
part of moral agency. Relating to the self-regulation,
Bandura developed his theory to discuss the methods
of people control towards the events in their lives
through self-regulation on their thoughts and acts
(Schunk, 2008). One of the main assumption from
social cognitive theory by Bandura is that persons
want to ‘control the events that influence their life”
and see themselves as an agent (Schunk 2008).
Based on Bandura statement in the context of
ethic study, it can be concluded that human is a
creature who serves as the creator of act (agency),
human always interact and gives influence to his
environment in ethical way; it involves cognitive
(moral reasoning), affective (feeling or emotion), and
conative (intention or motivation) processes. The
harmonization of those three processes will help
human to manifest their ethical behavior in daily life.
Moreover, Pasupathi and Wainryb (2010) said
that: Actually, one element of individual moral
agency may be proved in their tendency to consider
the scale of moral relevance from their behavior. The
consideration of greater moral relevance to the
behavior can produce a motivation to do good deeds,
whilst the consideration of lesser moral relevance will
produce hesitancy and pettiness to do bad things that
may hurt others.
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
272

Assessing a behavior for having moral relevance
needs a negotiation among the individual, their social
world and culture, and the nature of their behavior
(Smetana, 1982; Turiel et al., 1991). In its core, moral
value always makes dialectical with self, social
environment and the developed culture. Besides
increasing the relevance of moral through behavior,
moral agency also assists human to control situational
or external barrier that can create moral
disengagement (Pasupathi and Wainryb 2010;
Bandura 2002).
In case of situational and external barrier, Bandura
et al. (1996) reminded to avoid social environment
which is non-ethical and create obstacles, it can
trigger moral disengagement, weakening self-
regulation process, as well as degrading the role of
moral agency in life. The deactivation of self-
regulation can take place through (1) moral
justification, (2) the use of euphemistic language to
hide the actual purpose of one’s action, (3)
advantageous comparison, (4) the displacement of
responsibility, (5) the diffusion of responsibility, (6)
minimizing or ignoring the consequences of one’s
conduct, (7) dehumanizing the victim and (8) the
attribution of blame (Hiekkataipale and Lamsa,
2017).
In another reference, Taylor (1989), an expert in
identity theory, stated in his work titled “Sources of
the self: The making of the modern identity” cited in
Sugarman (2005) described that, “We are self-
interpreting, and in our attempts to understand, we
participate in the shaping of our own being and
becoming. Taylor proposes that in order for our self-
interpretations to get off the ground, however, it is
necessary to see ourselves against a horizon of
qualitative distinctions and standards of worth”.
Sugarman (2005) explained that the specialty of
Taylor’s contribution towards discussion of personal
self-identity is acquired from explicit moral
perspective that he brought to hermeneutics thesis. It
argues that: “human interprets himself.”
According to Taylor (1989), human as moral
agency because he is in the space of moral question
about the thing that gives meaning and value in
human life, and the meaning of being a human and
good person. During the discovery of meaning and
value of life, human needs to do a strong practical
evaluation towards the values which is developed in
society, interpreting the values in qualitative way,
articulating ‘constitutive wealth’ explicitly inside the
self. A constitutive wealth is moral purposes that
order us to critically evaluate values, framing moral
commitment, and affirming the ethical principles in
life completely.
In conclusion, moral agency is human capability
to interpret self, begin from the meaning discovery
and fundamental values for human life, evaluate it
qualitatively, articulate it in a form of high moral
purposes, and implement it in life consistently and
comprehensively. Based on the experts and scholars
arguments about moral agency, it can be synthesized
that: in multiple dimension of life, human faces social
environment which has potentiality to give good or
bad influences, the good influences will strengthen
moral character in human self. In the opposite, the bad
influences have potentiality of moral disengagement
in self. It is the point where self-regulation process
that can strengthen moral agency is needed. It is not a
light issue, so that we need strong effort to make all
human become capable to interpret their selves as a
creature with morality to live this life in ethical and
normative way.
4.2 Teacher as Moral Agent
Essentially, teacher is a noble profession which has a
high ethical value. It holds a mission to produce better
humane generation for the nation. In this case, reality
of education faced by the teacher in wider context is
to create humanization, a conscious and well-planned
effort in developing various human potentialities in
multidimensional way, in which it becomes an ideal
and complete human; it is not about education in the
narrow context (teaching or training). In this
humanity mission, teacher is obliged to understand
deeply moral of self-identity, based on Hart (2005),
“Moral identity is a vital conception in human life at
least for two reasons. First, it helps us to understand
not only moral example but also the cases of moral
destruction. Second, it is a bridging conception
between philosophical conception about moral life
and certain empirical evidences from the ethic and
psychological researches.
Referring to Hart (2005) argument, moral identity
is a strong basis to build awareness of moral agency
for the teacher. Moral identity also serves as a
compass in interpreting moral values critically.
However, “moral values in human life can influence
and force human to establish a pure life and create
goodness. It also gives benefit among people which is
based on the condition when human adhered and obey
to the moral policies, he will then have moral
responsibility of his identity as a human” (Blasi,
1999).
Moral identity and the comprehension of moral
values will support moral consciousness. Campbell
(2008) argues that “as a moral agency, teacher needs
to have a high moral consciousness. ” In this case, the
The Role of Teacher as a Moral Agent - A Conceptual Framework for Teachers’ Professional Ethics Development
273

level of awareness is inserted when teachers develop
their capacity to identify how moral values and its
sources become and how the ethic can be done
through the action, utterance, decision, and their own
intention. This relationship is created intellectually,
emotionally, intuitively, philosophically, practically,
and experientially. It happens when the teacher makes
a self-reflection and collective discussion with his
colleagues about the job they have been pursued
every day”. Furthermore, Campbell (2003) suggests
that Moral Agency is the result of professional role
and responsibility of the teacher, it is expressed and
confirmed in daily practice by giving role model, self-
management, moral teaching, connecting and
advising and self-involvement. Moral agency is
counselling about goodness and moral principles and
ethic which are intertwined from the difficulties both
in life and in the classroom.
Regarding to Campbell (2003), (1) it is important
to build trust toward the teacher that has obligation as
moral agency which is classified into two activities
area: ethically doing a professional action such as
wisdom, discipline, altruistic, cooperative, visionary,
responsible, and full integrity to the job; and (2)
teaching moral values using character education
approach such as honesty, just, bravery, patriotism,
patience, empathy, etc. The purpose of character
education is to shape students’ identity to have a
quality of moral character as well as good
characteristic performance. Moral character can be
defined as the power to do a good thing anytime and
anywhere, while the characteristic of performance
can be defined as capacity or power to do best with
full integrity to achieve a life goal properly (Davidson
et al., 2010).
In conducting the obligation, teacher must
become a good role model for everyone, both for the
students, students’ family, work partner, headmaster
and the grand society. Vargas (2001) in a particular
research about teacher moral development and
professional ethic, noted that behavior, nature, value
and priority of the teacher is the most prominent
factor in making role model for the student, and also
transfer value of goodness to the student. In line with
Vargas (2001), Ki Hajar Dewantara, an education
scholar in Indonesia, expressed a concept of
“Leadership Trilogy” in educational context. This
trilogy is a portrayal of a teacher as the leader in
educational world which should have three
characteristics. First, the teacher should be capable to
be a role model for the student; second, the teacher
needs to escalate the spirit and affection among the
student. Third, the teacher should be capable to lead
the student: (a) (guiding students’ behavior) to have a
high ethic. (b) Giving trust to a student to find the
potentiality or nature (Ibrahim and Hendriani, 2017).
4.3 Development Structure of Moral
Agency
The Development Structure of Moral Agency in the
context of the development of professional ethics has
been formulated by the followers of Kohlberg which
is often called Neo-Kohlbergisme incorporated in
'The Minnesota Group' (Rest, Narvaez, Thomas and
Bebeau) initiated the FCM theory (four-component
model of moral functioning) implicated in the
development of professional ethics. Neo-
Kohlbergisme research is summarized by Howard J.
Curzer in his article entitled "Tweaking the Four-
Component Model", Curzer (2014) explains:
“four-component model of moral functioning
(FCM). The components of the FCM are: moral
sensitivity (the ability to recognize the morally
salient aspects of a situation and to interpret
morally challenging situations), moral judgment
(the deliberative ability to determine which
options in a situations are morally required,
acceptable or prohibited), moral motivation (the
prioritizing of morality, i.e. the lack of
inclinations contrary to morality or the ability to
force oneself to do the right thing despite contrary
inclinations), and moral character (the package
of abilities that one needs in order to implement
one’s moral choices effectively)”
Referring to the Curzer's opinion, researchers
could make the four components as the structure of
moral agents development in the context of teaching
profession ethics. Strengthened by Rest et al. (1999)
who also developed FCM into the development of
professional ethics in general. The first component is
moral sensitivity, in the opinion Rest et al. (1999)
moral sensitivity is a skill that includes knowledge
and emotions about the issue or problems that hit the
profession, also, the abilities of regulation, code of
ethics, and the norms of one's profession, and
knowing when they should be applied. The second
component is moral consideration, Rest et al. (1999)
poses moral judgment as the ability to think carefully
about professional dilemmas, such as when to give
appropriate moral judgments in the professional life.
The third component is moral motivation, Rest et al.
(1999) calls it the ability to find the identity of the
profession, build commitment and integrity in the
profession, and design strategies for self-
improvement. The fourth component is the moral
character; the author is more suitable to use the word
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
274

"moral action". The fourth component is the teacher's
efforts in implementing conscious and autonomous
moral behaviors in various dimensions of life, the
fourth component representing an adequate moral
agent. Moral action includes competence, desire, and
habits.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This research offers a conceptual idea of moral agent
theory holistically and its implications for the
development of teaching profession ethics education.
By far, researches on improving teacher competence
in Indonesia only focused on professional and
pedagogic competence. PLPG (Teaching Profession
Education and Training Program) and the Teacher
Learning Competency Improvement Program are the
examples that focused only on developing teachers'
skills in classroom management and developing
learning tools. There is a void in teachers’
professional ethics education based competence
improvement. This study recommends the
importance of teachers to act as moral agents focused
on two areas: the development of ethical
professionalism actions and the enhancement of the
ability to develop moral education in the classroom.
The structure of moral agent development uses four
components of the moral functionality of Neo-
Kohlbergism: moral sensitivity, moral judgment,
moral motivation and moral action. Hopefully this
study will provide significance for the study of
teaching profession ethics education. The weakness
of this research is the fact that it is not yet entered the
practical level, so that the benefit cannot be
practically perceived by the society. This new
research is discourse in the form of conceptual
framework obtained from integrative study and
concept analysis from previous research. The
recommendation for further research is to try to
develop the didactic-methodical design of moral
agent education for the development of teaching
professional ethics.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Author would like to thank various party, especially
the researchers who focus in studying the moral
agency theory and the teaching profession ethic.
Their thought gave inspiration for author in finishing
this paper. Authors also thank to “The First
International Conference on Educational
Sciences” (ICES) committees which have
facilitated authors to publish this paper. Hopefully
it could provide benefits for the readers and
academic society.
REFERENCES
Artharini, I., 2017. Students Exam Related Suicide Cases,
National Standard School Examination Policy
Requested for Review. Retrieved July 23, 2017, from
http://www.bbc.com/indonesia/indonesia-39589093.
Bandura, A., 2002. Selective moral disengagement in the
exercise of moral agency. Journal of moral education.
31.2 p.101-119.
Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., Pastorelli, C.,
1996. Mechanism of moral disengagement in the
exercise of moral agency. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology. 71(2), 364–374.
Berlin, I., 2014. Freedom and its betrayal: Six enemies of
human liberty, Princeton University Press. New Jersey.
Bertens, K., 2013. Etika, Kanisius. Yogyakarta.
Bebeau, M. J., Monson, V. E., 2014. A theoretical and
evidenced-based approach for designing professional
ethics education. Handbook of moral and character
education. 507-534.
Blasi, A., 1999. 12a Comment: Caring About Morality: The
Development of Moral Motivation in Nunner-Winkler's
Work. Individual Development from 3 to 12: Findings
from the Munich Longitudinal Study. 291.
Brady, D. R., Asselin, M. E., 2016. Exploring outcomes and
evaluation in narrative pedagogy: An integrative
review. Nurse education today. 45, pp.1-8
Campbell, E., 2008. Teaching ethically as a moral condition
of professionalism. Handbook of moral and character
education. p. 601-617.
Campbell, E., 2003. The ethical teacher, McGraw-Hill
Education. UK.
Curzer, H. J., 2014. Tweaking the four-component model.
Journal of Moral Education. 43(1), 104-123.
Davidson, M. L., Khmelkov, V., Lickona, T., 2010. The
power of character: Needed for, and developed from,
teaching and learning, Springer. Dordrecht.
Freire, P., 2001. Pedagogy of the Heart, Continum. New
York.
Hart, D., 2005. The Development of Moral Identity. In
Nebraska symposium on motivation. (Vol. 51, p. 165).
Hiekkataipale, M. M., Lamsa, A. M., 2017. Moral Agents
in Organisations? The Significance of Ethical
Organisation Culture for Middle Managers’ Exercise of
Moral Agency in Ethical Problems. Journal of Business
Ethics. 1-15.
Ibrahim, T., Hendriani, A., 2017. Kajian Reflektif Tentang
Etika Guru Dalam Perspektif Ki Hajar Dewantara
Berbalut Filsafat Moral Utilitarianisme.
NATURALISTIC, Jurnal Kajian Penelitian Pendidikan
dan Pembelajaran. 1(2), 135-145.
Jahan, N., Islam, M. S., 2014. Ethical issues in university
teaching: Some selected university teachers'
The Role of Teacher as a Moral Agent - A Conceptual Framework for Teachers’ Professional Ethics Development
275

perceptions and practices. Educational Quest: An
International Journal of Education and Applied Social
Sciences. 5(2), 93.
Kesuma, D., 2016. Pengembangan Karakter-Kompetensi
Pebelajar Pada Mahasiswa PPG SD. Prosiding Seminar
Nasional Inovasi Pendidikan Universitas Negeri Solo.
Mars, C., 2008. Becoming A Teacher, University of Sidney.
Sidney.
Pasupathi, M., Wainryb, C., 2010. Developing moral
agency through narrative. Human Development 53(2),
55-80.
Rest, J. R., 1999. Moral development in the professions:
Psychology and applied ethics, Psychology Press.
Schunk, 2008. Learning Theories an Educational
Perspective, Pustaka Pelajar. Yogyakarta.
Smetana, J. G., 1982. Concepts of self and morality:
Women’s reasoning about abortion, Praeger. New
York.
Sockett, H., LePage, P., 2002. The missing language of the
classroom. Teaching and Teacher Education. 18(2),
159-171.
Strike, K. A., Ternasky, P. L., 1995. Ethics for
Professionals in Education: Perspectives for
Preparation and Practice, Teachers College Press.
New York.
Sugarman, J., 2005. Persons and moral agency. Theory &
Psychology. 15(6), 793-811.
Surya, M., 2014. Psikologi Guru (Konsep dan Aplikasinya),
Alfabeta. Bandung.
Taylor, C., 1989. Sources of the self: The making of the
modern identity, Harvard University Press. Cambridge.
Tilaar, H. A. R., 2012. Perubahan Sosial dan Pendidikan:
Pengantar Pedagogik Transformatif untuk Indonesia,
Rineka Cipta. Jakarta.
Turiel, E., Hildebrandt, C., Wainryb, C., 1991. Judging
social issues: Difficultiesblas, inconsistencies,
consistencies. Monographs of the Society for Research
in Child Development. 56, 1–103.
Vargas, R. A. C., 2001, The moral profession: A study of
moral development and professional ethics of faculty,
unpublished PhD dissertation. University of Texas at
Austin.
Whittemore, R., Knafl, K., 2005. The integrative review:
updated methodology. J. Adv. Nurs. 52, 546–553.
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
276