Navigating ethical landscapes: vocational educators’ adaptations through and beyond COVID-19

This paper examines the lived experiences of vocational education and training teachers during and post-COVID within the context of adult and lifelong learning, as many of these individuals are mature-age learners returning to education or seeking career transitions. The study explores how VET teachers navigated ethical dilemmas in decision-making while balancing professional standards, student welfare, and institutional pressures, revealing critical gaps in support systems and the impact on teaching quality within Australia’s unique competency-based VET framework. The paper uses a qualitative phenomenological approach grounded in situational ethics theory to understand teachers’ experiences of navigating unprecedented ethical challenges in their professional practice. Teachers encountered complex ethical dilemmas as they attempted to balance professional standards, student welfare, and institutional survival during unprecedented circumstances. The application of situational ethics proves particularly illuminating in understanding how teachers experienced moral distress when forced to choose between competing ethical imperativesThere are significant equity implications arising from challenges to teachers’ well-being, as well as considerable consequences for teacher retention. The research investigated experiences of a small number of Australian teacher participants; the topic merits further investigation with larger cohorts both in Australia and internationally. The research provides evidence of confronting situations that shape teacher decision-making, recognising the individually differentiated need for teacher support and development to retain teachers in the profession. The paper argues for finding ways to provide more practical training to produce more confident and industry-ready graduates. Ways to better build teacher and student readiness for uncertainties of a post-COVID future are highlighted.