Abstract. Effective ethical leadership is crucial in creating a positive and harmonious work environment. To determine the demographic profile and ethical leadership practices of school leaders in public hinterland schools of Misamis Oriental Districts, this study utilized a descriptive research design with 89 teachers and 15 school leaders in the hinterland as respondents. Mean, frequency, percentage, and T-test were used to analyze and interpret the data. The findings disclosed that the school leaders and the teachers rated the school leaders of the schools in the hinterland as practiced in all domains of ethical practices such as Integrity,Fairness, People Orientation, Power Sharing, Ethical Guidance, Role Clarification, and Concern for Sustainability. Moreover, there was a significant difference in the ethical leadership practices as rated by the teachers and the school leaders. The result showed that teachers’ rating was lower than the ratings of the school heads on the ethical leadership practices of the School Heads. Likewise, there was a significant difference in respondents’ ethical leadership when grouped according to their demographic profile. The study concludes that ethical leadership practices have a bearing with the teachers’ quality of teaching; thus, it is important to improve the ability of school leaders to lead ethically, and this can be strengthened with practice, focus, and time.

Keywords: Ethical leadership; Demographics; Leadership practices; Public school leaders.