Decentralization of school systems is based on certain assumptions concerning the teaching profession. In the Swedish reform debate one assumption is put forth as a chief condition for successfully giving teachers more responsibility and power: there must be a common ground of professional norms, especially concerning internal and social values and the idea of knowledge, learning, and pupil development. In this paper the experiences of three teachers are analyzed in an effort to understand the content of teachers' professional ethics. The experiences discussed were taken from written statements collected from 200 comprehensive teachers as part of a pre-study focusing on teachers' own reports of ethical dilemmas as they have met them in their daily work. The three cases of ethical dilemmas in teacher practice are analyzed in terms of which social (and internal) values they affect. The social values addressed include: protection from injury, self-determination, privacy, and equality of opportunity. (IAH)