Moral Foundations and Communicative Ethical Leadership of Public Elementary School Teachers

This study examined the relationship between moral foundations and communicative ethical leadership among public elementary school teachers in the Mati Central District, Division of the City of Mati. A quantitative descriptive-correlational design was used with 125 teachers selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected through adapted standardized survey questionnaires that measured moral foundations in terms of care, fairness, loyalty, respect, and sanctity, and communicative ethical leadership in terms of visible ethical actions, ethical openness, and ethical values. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, Pearson product-moment correlation, and multiple linear regression. Results showed that teachers reported a very high level of moral foundations overall (M = 4.30, SD = 0.60), with respect obtaining the highest domain mean (M = 4.39, SD = 0.61). Communicative ethical leadership was also rated very high overall (M = 4.33, SD = 0.60), with communicating ethics with openness recording the highest domain mean (M = 4.37, SD = 0.59). Moral foundations had a very high positive relationship with communicative ethical leadership (r = 0.82, R2 = 0.67, p = 0.000). Regression analysis also showed that care, fairness, loyalty, respect, and sanctity all significantly predicted communicative ethical leadership, with fairness showing the strongest standardized effect (Beta = 0.44). The model accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in communicative ethical leadership (R = 0.88, R2 = 0.77, F = 96.45, p = 0.000). The findings indicate that teachers who hold stronger moral foundations also report stronger ethical communication practices. The study supports the need for school-based professional development that links moral reflection, fair decision practices, ethical dialogue, and transparent communication.