DefinePK

Abstract

The study examined the ethical challenges in relation to educational stratification and its implications for social work practice. The null hypotheses of the study posit that there is no significant impact of educational stratification on professional responsibilities and ethical decision making. A quantitative survey research design was employed, with data collected from 400 respondents from a population of 4,125 PSTs (3657 Public sector, 467 private sector) in District Bhakkar, Punjab, Pakistan. Using stratified random sampling, proportional representation was given to the tehsils and gender. A structured questionnaire adapted from validated scales was used to gather data and its reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha. The results shows that social workers within the education sector in Pakistan have enduring ethical dilemmas that are based on institutional, structural, and policy inequity levels. Scarcity of resources, unclear policy settings and the presence of unclear professional roles proved to be the most significant barrier to fair practice. Meanwhile, the fear of backlash also becomes another obstacle to justice advocacy in stratified school systems. The result of the regression (R = 0.545, R 2 = 0.297, p < 0.001) indicates that there is a medium-but-significant correlation between stratification and professional responsibilities, and as such, inequitable environments do not only limit resources, but also influence moral agency and occupational identity. Even though practitioners are resilient and adaptive, the way they practice equity is still limited due to the systemic barriers and the lack of institutional support It is possible to build a more inclusive and ethically responsible framework of addressing marginalized learners in the variety of schooling systems in Pakistan by embedding anti-oppressive and social justice models in both educational policy and practice.