Educational Planning: the ethics of compromise

This manuscript focuses on ethics in educational policy planning. Specifically, it raises the question of how policy plan analysis may indicate for planners' ethics in considering that educational planners operate in an environment characterized by a variety of contradicting interests making compromises essential. The manuscript, which offers criteria that may be employed to assess and classify compromises, argues that different types of compromises may serve as proxies for planners' ethics. However, although the evaluation of compromises may produce valuable information, it is important to acknowledge that plans do not reflect the unique circumstances which existed while planning processes were performed. In this sense, an external assessment of planners' ethical conduct is limited. Therefore, it is concluded that much depends on planners' ethical and professional judgment and ability to maintain a conscientious balance between various considerations and expectations so that the compromises made will be less likely to produce paradoxical plans limiting educational development and progression.