Influence of Law and Ethics in Practice

Legal and ethic contexts in my digital practice

I am structuring my discussion around Rolfe, Freshwater and Jasper (2001) reflective model.




Step 1: What?
I have chosen to discuss something I had encountered from moving to a smaller town in my first few years of teaching from living in a large city. In the age of social media, where a huge majority of people access social media accounts daily in the developed world, it comes to no surprise that ethical dilemmas would occur. 
Living in a small community usually means that you would know many families of the children you would end up teaching. They may even be a part of your whānau! The ethical dilemma that arises is maintaining the boundaries between personal and professional life. On social media do you accept and/or interact with the parents of your students, and some students themselves? This was one of the first grey areas I had come across. I know what I would do personally, maintain the distance but this problem does not effect me, it effects those who have strong links to our town for generations. I can see the potential for many blurred lines between personal and professional matters (Connecticuts Teacher Education and Mentoring Program, 2012).




Step 2: So What?
Those who are in public service roles such as teachers, police officers, doctors, sports people, politicians etc. are particularly under the eye due to the nature of their service they provide. I am sure no one would want to deal with a questionable police officer or have a questionable teacher in their child's classroom! I personally have no issues where boundaries lie, and I have never really fallen into the social media craze or broadcasted anything I have then regretted. My faith requires me to always uphold myself in a the best way possible.
As teachers, we specifically have our code of professional responsibility and standards for the teaching professional which we need to adhere to and provide evidence to support those practices (Education Council, 2017). I will be using the code and standards and Hall’s (2001) recommended questions to guide through the ethical decision making process.
  • Stakeholders: Parents, whanau, teachers and the school are all significant stakeholders in this scenario.
  • Restrictions: Building and maintaining working relationships between students, teachers, whānau and school are a huge part of our code, (under commitment to families and whānau) but is it supporting a professional culture that upholds this code in its entirety, (under commitment to the teaching profession) and most important engaging in ethical and professional relationships with learners that respect professional boundaries (under commitment to learners)… (Education Council, 2017)
  • Possible actions and implementation: The school could put a total ban for personal accounts linked to whānau of students and staff – but that is not reasonable, as you cannot restrict personal accounts of what staff do in their own time. Another solution could be to create a separate account for personal and professional interactions.  This could become tedious with the huge work load teachers already have. The final solution would be to restrict access and viewing of personal accounts especially to whānau and students who belong to our school.

Step 3: Now What?
From the analysis above, the best scenario I believe is the final solution as it protects the staff member from critique from the community but still allows for communication, which is key in such a small community where everyone knows each other. It would set clear boundaries between both professional and personal life whilst maintaining professional relationships between students and their whānau, and resolving some of the restrictions (Education Council, 2017). I think it is unreasonable to ask for no interaction in a small town, whereas in a larger city or town, where personal interactions outside of school are unlikely this would not be an issue.



References:
Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program. (2012). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas for Educators: Facilitator’s Guide: Understanding the Code of Professional Responsibility for Educators. Connecticut, US: Author. Retrieved from https://www.ctteam.org/df/resources/Module5_Manual.pdf
Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards.Retrieved 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. In IIPE Conference, Brisbane. 

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Comments

  1. phedder24 February 2018 at 17:20

    I agree with you in respect of the final decision. I would strongly advocate that teachers do not engage online with parents or students they teach. In secondary school this is challenging when students leave school and want to connect with you because they want you to also be part of the next phase of their lives. The issue becomes all the others who are also part of their social network, or even younger brothers or sisters who are still at school who are linked into their account. I have removed many of my ex-students from social media that I was connected to. Some of the things they were posting were not appropriate and I did not want that kind of information appearing on my account. Professionally, I prefer Google Classroom which keeps everything professional within the school context.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous25 February 2018 at 14:17

    I also agree and strongly advocate for teaches to keep their personal lives separated from their professional. However you can always open another site where you can foster these relationships in a positive way with your students and their caregivers. Our school has a facebook page and one of the more innovative teachers has started a facebook page for her class. When social media is one of the main forms of communicating with families we should try to find ways to use this as another teaching tool.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Minding my future with Mindlab28 February 2018 at 17:01

    Kia ora ano Whāea Alia, this is such an important discussion and I really enjoyed reading about your transition from city centre to a smaller town, where (as you explained), "A huge majority of people access social media accounts daily". I sit somewhere in the middle of Craig - who advocates strongly (with good reason), "that teachers do not engage online with parents or students they teach" - and Maree-Lou who supports Craigs position, but has provided two helpful solutions to this ethical dilemma. Looking at the Education Council's 'Commitment to Parents/Guardians and Family/Whānau' it does tend to incentivise teachers towards employing online social networks in their teaching practise; stating "Social media provides a great opportunity to collaborate and communicate with parents and family. Social media can provide a window into a school/centre so that ideas and information can be shared and exchanged all the time" https://goo.gl/a3Cuxd

    Let me just say, that if had not been for Mind Lab, I would still be very much opposed to the use of social media, in a 'teacher to student' or 'teacher to parent/caregiver' context, however I've undergone something of a pedagogical shift in the last 6 months, embracing Twitter as a collaborative and inquiry learning tool in the classroom and FB for the purposes of organising an overseas tour. 'So far, so good' Alia, but I have laboured to ensure the "content...[of all]...posts and discussions remain[s] on-topic" and that "the tone and content of [my] posts or messages"
    is always hyper professional, which tends to model the expected etiquette, but without having to overtly say so! https://goo.gl/wv4HRT

    Finally, I think you’ve ‘read your hometown well’ Whāea Alia, by being sensitive to their needs and acknowledging that ‘it is unreasonable to ask for no interaction in a small town’. #lovingyourwork @WhāeaAlia :)



    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Positively changing my practice

Image
A change in my practice towards future-orientated learning and teaching There are 8 different options that I could address regarding my change of practice. They consist of the following: 1. Personalised learning 2. New views of equity, diversity and inclusivity 3. A new curriculum that uses knowledge to develop learning capacity 4. "Changing the Script" - Rethinking learners' and teachers' roles 5. A culture of continuous learning for teachers and educational leaders 6. New kinds of partnerships and relationships. Schools no longer siloed from the community Subtheme 1. The role of current and emerging technologies Subtheme 2. Role of collaborative practices Although I feel like I could reflect on more than one area, I decided to go with one that turned my thinking around 180 degrees... Number 4. Positively changing my practice from rethinking learners’ and teachers’ roles A traditional upbringing usually sticks with you unless yo...
Read more

Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

Image
Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness I prefer the term culturally sustaining pedagogy instead of culturally responsive pedagogy. Milne (2017) argues that cultural identity is not just something that needs to be celebrated, which is what I have seen even with my others learning about my culture, rather teachers should embrace student’s cultural identity at every opportunity throughout the curriculum, learning activities, school policies and events. Bishop (2009) discusses the need to address educational disparity and the deficit thinking which is oft applied to Māori students. Agentic teachers (as well as support from school)  is needed to create learning contexts so our indigenous and minority students can bring their own values and understanding to the classroom. Step 1: What? From my multiple visits to NZ before moving I didn’t experience or really know anything about the indigenous Maori culture. Instead acknowledged some place names...
Read more