Improving the ethical decision making process of educational leaders: An action research study The purpose of this action research study was to link together theory and educational leaders' practice to give form to and improve their ability to make ethically sound decisions. The questions that guided the study included:

1. How can I, as a superintendent, lead the principals I work with to use all four ethical paradigms in their own decision making?

2. What current interactions and thinking patterns constitute each principal's own ethical framework for the decision-making process?

3. How do the four ethical paradigms interact with each other during each principal's decision-making process? 4. How can the understanding of this interaction with the four ethical paradigms during the decision-making process produce better decisions?

The study, which drew on transcripts of book study sessions with principals and the principals' written reflections on those sessions, found that a collaborative book study could serve as a vehicle for principals' reflection on their own decision-making; that through self- and collaborative analysis of principals' decision-making, principals could and did change the ethical frames they used to make decisions; and that changing the ethical frameworks principals used in their decision-making improved their practice. In addition, the superintendent himself benefitted from meeting with the principals on a regular basis outside administrative meetings, building trust with the principals and improving his own practice.