How Internal and External Pressures Shape the Ethical Challenges of Secondary School Teachers in Bangladesh

Abstract

Secondary school teachers in Bangladesh play a pivotal role in upholding the quality of education, integrity and public confidence. However, the teachers in this sector face persistent challenges relating to complex organisational and institutional environments where governance, accountability, corruption and political interference create significant moral dilemmas. This review investigates how internal and external pressures shape the ethical challenges experienced by secondary school teachers in Bangladesh. Special attention was given to how these challenges emerge while evaluating the effectiveness of existing education policies and governance frameworks in addressing these challenges. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was employed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) framework to identify, screen and synthesis relevant studies published between 2015 and 2025. Following a systematic search and selection procedure, 38 studies were finally included and examined using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns related to governance, leadership, organisational culture, professional culture and teachers’ working conditions. The reviewed studies imply that the ethical challenges experienced by secondary school teachers are influenced by the interplay of internal organisational and external systemic pressures rather than by their individual choices alone. Internal pressures such as authoritarian leadership, constrained professional autonomy and organisational environment that limit ethical decision-making. External pressures emerge from political interference, corruption, highly centralised governance frameworks and inadequate institutional support. The review further highlights an integrity-survival paradox in which insufficient remuneration and underinvestment in education encourage many teachers to depend on private coaching and other supplementary income-generating practices, creating concerns between professional morality and economic instability. Together, these pressures contribute to jeopardised education ethics, which includes assessment related malpractices, diminished professional trust and weakened public confidence in the secondary education system. The review concludes that a significant policy-implementation gap prevails between national ethical expectations and reality of school-level practices. Reinforcing ethical behaviour requires systemic i emendation which extends beyond supervisory dependency to reinforce empowered governance, ethical and distributive leadership, enhanced teacher support, improved accountability mechanisms and teacher wellbeing. This review contributes to the literature by providing a synthesis of the ethical challenges experiencing secondary school teachers in Bangladesh and presents evidence-based recommendations to strengthen ethical conduct and governance within secondary education.