Uncovering prospective teachers' sense of moral agency within a multi-layered framework: an integrative grounded theory approach

Using an integrative grounded theory design, this study investigated prospective teachers' moral perceptions, emotions, behavioral intentions, and reasons for their moral behavioral intentions concerning their future teaching to uncover whether prospective teachers' sense of moral agency would be explained within a multi-layered framework. The data were collected through semi-structured focus-group interviews with 40 conveniently sampled prospective teachers. The results revealed that prospective teachers' sense of moral agency encompassed perceptual (i.e. moral perceptions, emotions, behavioral intentions, and reasons for moral behavioral intentions), regulatory (i.e. prescriptive and proscriptive moral regulation systems), and contextual layers (i.e. personal, interpersonal, and social contexts). Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed in the study.