I consider myself an ethical person (my husband just commented ‘very’). For as long as I can remember I have always had a strong sense of right and wrong and have always done the right thing. This may in part be due to my christian upbringing from birth. When I became a teacher five years ago I didn’t really give a lot of thought to the ethical side of the profession, maybe because I didn’t see it being an issue for me. As I progress in my career I can see that we, as teachers, are going to be faced with more and more situations where our ethics are going to be tested. The more we move through the twenty first century the more challenges I think we will face.
In my five years in the classroom I haven’t really faced a major ethical situation/dilemma. There was a case in my second year where one of my Year 2’s sent me a friend request on Facebook but that was a no brainer - I hit decline quick smart. I did question why a seven year old was even on Facebook given the minimum age limit is thirteen.
I have a policy of not accepting friend requests from students and parents of students. To date I haven’t taught anyone over the age of nine so that hasn’t been a problem. As teachers we are constantly on display and potentially being judged. While we are on the job from 8 until 5 (yeah, I know that’s an understatement!), we are always conscious of anything that we do reflecting on us and our school. At the end of last term I took the last week as a week’s leave without pay to go on a cruise, which was a delayed honeymoon after getting married some two years prior. My principal quietly asked me not to post any pictures on Facebook until I had returned or the school holidays had started. Why? Am I not entitled to a holiday like anybody else? Or is it because I’m a teacher I can’t have holidays outside of the school holidays, even if it was without pay? I’m not friends with any parents from school but the degrees of separation are quite small in a smaller city and somebody is bound to be friends with one of my Facebook friends and would it then get back to parents and they question the Principal’s decision to grant this leave? I’m still not sure about this particular situation.
Hall (2001) talks about distinguishing between personal values and beliefs and professional obligations. I had a situation recently where two of my students were having a rigorous debate about the existence of God. Looking for someone to settle the argument they sought me out. Now, on a personal level I could have agreed with one and confirmed her belief that God exists based on my own christian beliefs but as a teacher I have an obligation under the Code of Professional Responsibility (Education Council, 2017) to ‘respect the diversity of the heritage, language, identity and culture of all learners’. I politely pointed out that I couldn’t settle the argument for them and they would have to agree to disagree and discuss it further with their families.
References
Education Council. (June, 2017). Our Code Our Standards: Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession. Retreived from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf
Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers
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