Ethical leadership in Education is no Longer a Nice-to-have, it's a Must-have

The modern world is evolving at a pace we’ve never seen before. As a result, today’s teenagers are grappling with ethical dilemmas that many adults didn’t face until well into their professional lives, if at all. From navigating the murky waters of online identity and misinformation, to weighing the moral implications of artificial intelligence and climate inaction, young people are confronting complex issues with far-reaching consequences.

We can’t shield them from these realities. But we can equip them with the ethical frameworks and moral courage to face them with clarity, resilience, and integrity.

Increasingly, Australia’s educators are being asked to do more than deliver academic outcomes. There is a growing expectation that schools help shape young citizens who can think critically, act justly, and lead with compassion in a fractured and fast-moving world.

This expectation is not misplaced. The education system is uniquely positioned to lay the foundation for ethical leadership at a time when students are developing not just intellectually, but morally. Adolescence is a pivotal stage for values formation. Yet too often, ethical reasoning is treated as an optional add-on.

What’s needed is a deeper, more sustained integration of ethical thinking into the educational experience. It’s not about telling students what to think or how to behave, it’s about helping them develop the tools to think ethically, under pressure, and with others in mind. 

And we’re seeing the consequences of not doing so. The eSafety Commissioner’s Youth Digital Participation report found that 4 in 5 teens feel pressure to present a perfect version of themselves online, while 42% have experienced some form of online hate or harassment. Simultaneously, the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT has raised questions about authenticity, academic integrity, and the erosion of critical thinking. 

These are not just technological shifts, they are ethical dilemmas, and today’s adolescents are often left to navigate them without the language or frameworks to do so. 

Yet despite these pressures, I remain optimistic. Today’s young people are thoughtful, values-driven, and deeply attuned to social justice and systemic fairness. Many aren’t just willing to lead, they’re determined to. Our role as educators and mentors is to support this potential, not merely protect it.

This year, Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership partnered with St Catherine’s School in Melbourne to pilot an initiative which embeds our executive-level ethics curriculum into the secondary school environment. Drawing on decades of experience working with Australia’s business, government, and not-for-profit leaders, the program introduces students to the real-world application of moral reasoning - encouraging them to engage with complexity, wrestle with competing values, and ultimately make decisions they can stand by.

The St Catherine’s school motto - Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum - translates to “nothing is great unless it is good.”  Engaging students to reflect deeply on the virtues which underpin “goodness” at both a personal and societal level builds the type of critical thinking muscles we require of our future leaders if they are to solve some of the intractable problems which have so far eluded us.

The ethical challenges facing today’s youth - whether online, in the workplace, or in their communities - are not hypothetical. They’re here, now, and growing. We must give students the tools not only to respond, but to lead.

Our hope is that this partnership with St Catherine’s becomes a model for other schools nationwide. We believe that by embedding ethical leadership in education - not as an add-on, but as a core component of learning - we can help nurture a generation of Australians who are equipped with moral courage and the ability to make ethical decisions in a world where it will most certainly be asked of them.