Ethics in Education and the Development of Coaches

Arguably, the main aim of coaching education providers is to help coaches become ethical practitioners. However, despite this, ethics in coach education is rarely considered compared to topics such as skills, approaches or models. One reason may be that coaches and coaches’ educators take for granted that becoming familiar with ethics codes and applying their rules and guidance is sufficient. We explore the need for ethical approaches in coach education, moving beyond rules and ethics codes to understand ethics education as a continuous process that requires the development of reflective practice and critical thinking skills. We start by considering the terminology employed in the coaching world concerning coach education and the role ethics plays in coach education. Then, using MacIntyre’s virtues approach, we argue that ethical behaviour is related to the person’s character. Therefore, developing a virtuous character is the first step to appropriate ethical behaviour. Finally, we argue that ethics can be taught only under two main conditions: the educator acts as a role model and promotes reflective practice and critical thinking throughout and ethics is part of the content of a programme. We conclude with a vignette and raise key questions coaching educators could try to address.