Monday 9th October
Activity 5: Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice
Ethical dilemmas surrounding teachers and education have always been around. I think now, with the rapid pace of technology the issues are more complicated and varied. As Hall, A. (2001) identified, today’s teachers are frequently confronted by ethical choices in situations that did not arise, or were relatively unproblematic for their counterparts 30 years ago.
In the 21st century many of us are now ‘connected’ via facebook, Twitter, email, Instagram, Snapchat and countless others. When I think about an ethical dilemma it is related to our responsibilities to communicate and connect with parents and whanau about their child.
As the Practising Teacher Criteria 1 below identifies: establish and maintain effective professional relationships focussed on the learning and well-being of Äkonga - communicate with families, whanau and caregivers.
As a teacher of Year 2’s, I consider these children to still be young and relatively ‘new’ to the education system. There could be many possible issues that arise which requires you to make contact with someone at home. The NZ National Curriculum aims for all young people to be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners. For this to be successful part of it involves establishing a trusting and reciprocal partnership with parents and whanau early on in their education. This is also reflected in teachers Code of Ethics:
Communicating with adults, via landline during school hours isn’t always feasible as there are many expected and unexpected scenarios during the day. Contacting parents, whanau and caregivers in the evening, using my cellphone allows continued access to my number. This gives people the opportunity for ongoing communication regardless of day and time, who with the best intent are committed to the care and welfare of their children. As a result of this I feel an expectation that I should be available 24/7 to communicate with parents and whanau. The lines are getting blurred between work and a teachers personal life.
Henderson, M., Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014) suggested that teachers create a social networking profile specifically for their professional work. Seesaw has allowed me to achieve this. Parents, caregivers and whanau can download the app and immediately see what the student is doing during the day. It has recently added announcements to all families or students in the class to privately message individual parents. This has taken away the feeling of having to instantly respond and has kept the boundary between home and school separate.
References:
Education Council. (n.d). The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved from; https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards
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
Henderson, M., Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014). Ethics of Teaching with Social Media. Paper presented at the Australian Computers in Education Conference 2014, Adelaide, SA. Retrieved from: http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/session/ethics-teaching-socialmedia
Nice work Sarah, you have identified the ethical dilemma of parents presuming you are available 24/7, this is similar to my chosen ethical dilemma- parents wanting to be Facebook friends. We are bound to create and foster positive and open relationships with our families but there has to be a line drawn. I used to think that Facebook was a platform which was acceptable to keep communities informed and there wasn’t anything wrong with class Facebook pages, I am slowly changing my mind about this now. It does seem to blur the lines between personal and professional somewhat, meaning we as teachers are accessible all the time. I like the way you have identified Seesaw as allowing you and your class to have a separate networking profile specifically for professional work, this draws the line in what is work and what is private and social. We all have another life away from teaching!
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah
ReplyDeleteI too wonder about the idea of 24/7 connection with our students and parents. There are definitely questions around privacy that need to be addressed when looking at professional relationships. I try to separate professional life from home life and am reluctant to give out my mobile number (I have in the past especially when engaged in major excursions). We use Schoology as our online learning platform and most professional contact takes place via this platform. But when are you off the clock - I have found students get frustrated if I have not replied to a query within 24 hours. I also think that ethics around learning is something we need to explicitly teach all students from simple things around acknowledging sources of information to working collaboratively with others. Our jobs get more complicated with every year!
Great blog Sarah. Its awesome when parents want to be part of their childs learning however some can go to far. As a secondary school teacher you slowly see less and less of the parents. There are many students who I teach over the whole 5 years of their schooling and I don't see them once for parent/teacher interviews. I actually think its getting worse. The only point of direct contact from me is by emails and phone calls. That doesn't mean I'm on the clock all the time however emails are always answered during the day and never when I'm at home with my family. Students like to keep in contact through social media - the group facebook messenger system helps students and teacher keep in contact and the line of communication is way better than through the normal school notice system. It's important that as a teacher all information on the group chat is factual and professional. I have made a very conscious decision to keep no facebook friends with current and ex students. John Parsons from stimuate2educate states that all teachers should have no photos or communications with students on their phones as this is when the lines can become blurred. Its a very interesting topic with everyone still working out the boundaries and no real direct answers from the ministry
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