Activity 5-Legal and Ethical Contexts In My Digital Practice
As a registered teacher with a current practicing certificate and working with children, it is my moral duty and obligation to work by and follow the law as written in the Teacher Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers as set out with New Zealand Education Council. There are four main areas.
Commitment to the Learners, Commitment to the Parents/Guardians/Family and Whanau, Commitment to Society, Commitment to the Profession
Just like it is for me to follow the code of ethics and code of conduct for the organisation that I work for.
For health and safety reasons, to operate the playgroup in our community we have to pass the regulations and policies as set out by the Ministry of Education, New Zealand.
We have just received this certificate of registration.
Anything that goes out to the public digital or not has to be checked and approved by the management team first.
In the early childhood sector and with my playgroup, we have to have the parents permission, in the form of a written consent form and signature that we can take photos of their children for evaluation purposes(e.g. profile books) and to add photos to social media like the face book page which we have for our playgroup.
This shared community page is proving very useful for the those who have agreed to do this and they enjoy seeing the photos of the children learning and participating in different activities.
It is an online interactive forum that allows those members of the face book page to communicate with each other. Therefore everyone is aware right from the start about sharing on face book.
Under no circumstances can photos of children be put on social media without the parents written consent.
As the playgroup facilitator and teacher, I have a work mobile and email address for client use only.
There has been a dilemma of late, when parents have requested and invited me to be a friend on face book.
I cannot accept this because it will give mixed messages and confusion about my work ethics and responsibilities. It could cause problems in the future with regard to my professional and personal life being challenged.
According to Allan he talks about the ethnic diversity, cultural, social ethical pluralism in New Zealand. Educators, teachers and principals have a more challenging time than previously. Anything we do, say and ethical decisions, can be easily publicly challenged and publicised. Children are staying at school longer, we have more diverse ethnic groups, parents values and beliefs are varied and expectations have changed. Schools are becoming more competitive and tension between colleagues and professionally collaborative relationships.
"thus it is hardly surprising that teachers are being confronted by new ethical demands and their ethical decision making has become more complex."(Hall page 2 para.5)
Therefore depending on the situation and the circumstances that I would find myself in would determine the types of decisions I need to make. What process or problem solving would I need to be consider when faced with ethical situations and decisions. e.g. to tell parents or not if a child has been distruptive in class and not focusing on their work, this could cause shame in some cultures and put the child in a difficult place with the family, the child might be hit for shaming their family.....so damn if you do and damn if you don't say something as a teacher.
The process of talking with the principal and other colleagues about any ethical concerns is the best practice, especially to do with inappropriate behaviour demonstrated by students. Bullying is a huge problem especially cyber bullying and this has to be taken seriously and zero tolerance. Usually the victim does not know who is causing the bullying and it can become a group of bullys which can make it worse. These types of issues should be dealt with and discussed as a team. The necessary policies, systems and processes to solve these issues.
As educators we have the responsibility to educate students that cyber bullying is unacceptable. There are some very good drama groups that teach about the issues facing young students and how they can protect themselves against and deal with cyber bullying.
Therefore regulations, laws, ethics, code of conduct and policies are to help keep people safe and sometimes make difficult decisions which are not always black and white. Students and children are much more aware of their rights and teachers and educators are faced with on a daily basis moral, ethical decisions and dilemmas which we are also trying to learn and teach future generations and life long learners about.
Diagram 1 Google Images
References
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 fromhttp://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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