Week 28 notes

Applied Practice - activity 4
This week we address Applied Practice 1 Activity 4 “Discuss how issues of ethics, society, culture and professional environments (including law, regulations and policy) are being addressed while you are taking action”.
To help you do this we discuss teachers legal professional obligations, ethics, ethical and legal issues in the digital age; and tools for ethical decision making.
Legal professional obligations for teachers
Teacher practice in New Zealand is governed by the Code of Professional Responsibility and Standard for the Teaching profession - Our Code, Our Standards(Education Council, 2017a). The Education Council state “The Code applies to all certificated teachers and those who have been granted a Limited Authority to Teach, in every role and teaching context. It is a set of aspirations for professional behaviour and not a list of punitive rules. We believe that it reflects the expectations society puts on our profession... As it says in section 387 (6) of the Education Act, it’s binding on all teachers.” (2017b, n.p.). The Education Council identify the values that underpin the Code and Standards as “whakamana; manaakitanga; pono; and whanaungatanga” (2017c, p.2).
Ethics
Ethics are learned behaviours shaped by a range of societal influences such as school, work, community, family, religion, the arts, sports and culture. Remember back to Week 22, if you plan to carry out research which involves whanau, this “Researching with whanau collectives” paper (supplementary) provides a whanau researcher guideline to serve as an ethical framework.
Your individual interpretation of ethics helps shape your ideas about justice, morality and virtue.Everything you do, every decision you make, has ethics at its core, driving or motivating your actions and decisions. Identifying your personal ethics allows you to understand what drives and motivates you to respond to situations in certain ways. Teachers also have professional ethical obligations.
Identifying and understanding your professional ethics provides part of the map of your professional journey and at times prescribes exactly what you can and cannot do.Ethical principles are used to provide guidance on our behaviour as professionals. Integrity, dignity, responsibility, respect, justice, and care are some of the ethical principles associated with teaching and learning, which have been codified by professional bodies of teachers to provide guidance on acceptable practices for their members. The Code of Professional Responsibility and Standard for the Teaching profession - Our Code, Our Standards(Education Council, 2017a) and any specific organisational principles and standards, attitudes and or legal obligations, also influence your relationships with people, students, and environments. Next we look at some ethical issues.
Ethical, professional issues in the digital age
The Ministry of Education state “How a teacher’s actual, perceived or implied actions may be viewed later from an ethical or legal perspective is important in terms of maintaining their professional integrity whilst ensuring the safety of students” (2015, p.17) in Section 3 An overview of prevention and incident response of the Guide for schools - DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Safe and responsible use in schools (supplementary)
The widespread use of technology in education brings new and challenging ethical and legal issues to the teaching profession, which include:
  • Digital divides associated with gender, socio-economic status, race, and bias
  • Violation of privacy and confidentiality and misuse of student data
  • Blurred personal and professional boundaries in electronic communication
  • Abuse of ICT in school
  • Plagiarism and intellectual-property violation
  • Improper use of social media within the context of school/ cyberbullying
Next we look at some tools to address ethical issues.
Tools for ethical decision-making
Ethics are what we ought to abide by, but what should we do when we face an ethical dilemma - when we cannot find an ethically acceptable or preferable option without any ambiguity? Teachers often face ethical dilemmas in their everyday work, as what constitutes ethical behaviour may lie in a ‘grey zone’.
Your personal moral code, the school’s values, and the code of conduct for teaching professionals must inform ethical decision-making, but those values and guidelines are unlikely to provide clear-cut answers to a complex situation where there are competing responsibilities to fulfill.
Tools like models, frameworks, and processes can help us understand the nature of ethical decision-making and the various forces at play when we are faced with ethical dilemmas. We also need such tools to help us make professionally defendable, ethical decisions.
Ehrich et al. (2011) (required) presents an ethical decision-making model (Figure 1) that helps to explain decision-making processes when teaching professionals encounter ethical dilemmas.
Figure 1. A model of ethical decision-making

This model highlights that the context, forces, and decision-making processes impact individuals or groups facing ethical dilemmas. There are five main parts of the model (Ehrich et al., 2011).
  1. The critical incident, which triggers the ethical dilemma.
  2. A set of competing forces, each of which impacts on decision-making from its own particular bias.
  3. The individual’s values, beliefs, and ethical orientations in relation to the dilemma.
  4. The choice, which could be no action or the action taken formally or informally, internally or externally.
  5. The action (or non-action) can create particular types of implications for the individual, organisation and the community, and from which new incidents or dilemmas can arise.
You may wish to copy and use the following ethical decision-making model factors template for the issue that you chose to reflect on. https://tinyurl.com/TMLtemplate).
In addition, there are a couple of other sources you may find useful to consider ethical and professional issues. The reading from Hall (2001) (supplementary) recommends these questions (among others) to guide the process:
  • “Which [community member(s)] should be given priority? Why?
  • What restrictions are there to your actions?
  • Which courses of action are possible?
  • How should the course of action be implemented? “ (p.5).
Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program (2015), (supplementary) suggests other guiding questions for working an ethical issue:
  • “What possible issues/concerns might this scenario raise?
  • How could this situation become a violation of the law, the “Code” or other school policies?
  • In this situation, what are some potential negative consequences for the teacher, for the students and the school community?
  • What responses/actions will result in a more positive outcome and/or what proactive measures might be considered?“ (p.5)
THIS WEEK’S ASSESSMENT
Activity 4:Act in your Professional Environment
Create a reflective entry in which you discuss how issues of ethics, society, culture and professional environments (including law, regulations and policy) are being addressed while you are taking action.
Following the steps below, adapted from Rolfe’s model of reflection, may help you to structure your discussion.
Step 1 (What): Identify an issue of ethics, or society, or culture, or professional environment that you have:
EITHER come across as you implemented your Action Plan
OR identified in your Action Plan.
You may have come across one of the issues that are discussed in the section “Ethical, professional issues in digital age” in this week’s class notes or issues such as those discussed in Week 22and Week 23 class notes. Week 27 has more detail about potential cultural issues.
Step 2 (So What): Use an ethical decision-making framework such as Ehrich (2011) to analyse the issue identified in Step 1 and identify potential outcomes/solution(s). If you choose Ehrich’s framework, you do NOT need to discuss all the competing forces listed in the model, just critically evaluate the most relevant ones.
Step 3 (Now What): Discuss how you selected a solution to address the issue, from the options identified in Step 2. You should refer to regulations or policy in your organisation, or the Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession, or relevant legal documents discussed in the Legal professional obligations for teachers section above.
References
Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program. (2015). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas for Educators: Facilitator’s Guide: Understanding the Code of Professional Responsibility for Educators. Connecticut, US: Author. Retrieved from http://portal.ct.gov/-/media/SDE/TEAM/Module_5_Supplemental_Scenarios-Facilitator_Guide_January_2015.pdf?la=en
Cranston, N., Ehrich, L. C. & Kimber, M. P. (2004). Towards an understanding of Ethical Dilemmas Faced by School Leaders. Principia, Journal of the Queensland Secondary Principals' Association, 1, pp. 1-3.Retrieved from:http://eprints.qut.edu.au/732/2/Ethical_Dilemmas.pdf
Education Council. (2017b). Application of the Code. Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards
Education Council. (2017c). Frequently asked questions. Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/FAQ%20FINAL.pdf
Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794
Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. In IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from
Legal, Ethical, and Social Issues in Educational Computing. (2013). Technology in Education, The Legal, Social, and Ethical Issues [video]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/sappingtonkr/02-legal-ethical-and-social-issues-in-educational-computing.
Ministry of Education. (2015).DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Safe and responsible use in schools. Wellington: New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from https://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/School/Managing-and-supporting-students/DigitalTechnologySafeAndResponsibleUseInSchs.pdf

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