Activity 4 - Act in Your Professional Environment

Activity 4: Discuss how issues of ethics, society and culture are being addressed while you are taking action.

Step 1 (What): Identify an issue of ethics.

Ethical dilemmas are unavoidable in the profession of teaching. Throughout the ages, research has been conducted on the subject, to create guidelines and codes for ethical practice. I was delighted this week, to stumble across the seven virtues of an ethical life, identified by none other than Saint Thomas Aquinas - after whom our school is named! These include faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, courage and justice (Christenbury, 2008, p. 38) and although written in the middle ages, still have great relevance in our Catholic community today.

During the Action Phase of my inquiry, my students have been using Microsoft Teams as a digital platform for communication. Despite having clearly outlined my expectations around respectful use of Teams and particularly its "chat" feature, an incident of bullying arose this week. A group of boys in my class set up their own group chat, intentionally excluding other members of the class. They were rather vocal about their group, calling out to each other across the class "Have you invited Bob (name changed) into the group?" "No, there's only room for 8 members" etc. Luckily, this meant I became aware of the incident almost immediately and had some quick decisions to make. 

Step 2 (So What): Analyse the issue.

A model of ethical decision-making (Ehrich et al., 2011)

Ehrich et al.'s (2011) model of ethical decision-making is composed of five main parts. The forces competing in this model are endless, so I have chosen a few to consider below:

A set of competing forces, values and beliefs: 
Our school's inclusive culture, they boys' friendships and "harmless banter", my class expectations and zero tolerance for bullying, Bob's involvement in the class and right to feel safe, school policy around use of technology.

Choices:
Ignore - Allow the group chat, avoiding embarrassment for Bob but potentially causing him stress and anxiety. The behaviour continues with no acknowledgement from me of any wrong. I condone their actions and maintain our relationship.
Act - Talk to Bob? Take the boys aside for a restorative conversation? Disable their internet use? Yell and scream at them in front of the class? Send them to their dean? Escalate to senior management and have them banned from using devices at school..?

Step 3 (Now What): Discuss the selected solution.

Ethical dilemmas are complex, and it is no secret that clear steps to resolve such issues simply do not exist. Ehrich et al. (2011) stress the importance of teachers understanding the contributing factors and potential outcomes of an ethical decision. We must be able to make professionally defensible decisions, and the Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession (Education Council, 2017) helps to guide us through this in a culturally responsive way, with its four values of Whakamana, Manaakitanga, Pono and Whanaungatanga.  

I immediately shut down the conversation and re-focused the boys on their learning task. Using ClassWise, I was able to remotely close Microsoft Teams to instantly cut the group chat. As there were only ten minutes remaining, I ran the rest of the class as normal. To put the rights and welfare of my learners first, and avoid unnecessary harm or anxiety, I quietly asked the boys involved (without Bob) to stay behind for a quick restorative chat about what I had seen unfold and how I felt about it. We discussed the importance of manaakitanga in the classroom, a welcoming, respectful environment, and honouring our school culture of whanaungatanga. In short, the issue was resolved with pono - integrity and fairness, causing the least harm and distress to all students involved as possible. Although having future ethical dilemmas of a similar nature is a given, I am confident that my knowledge of the Code will allow me to act with whakamana - empowering learners through quality practice. 


This reflection was written following Rolf's Model of Reflection, Finlay (2009).
References:


Christenbury, L. (2008). A consideration of the ethics of teaching English. English Journal,
97(6), 32–38.


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

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. Practice-based Professional Learning Centre, Open University. Retrieved from http ://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

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