week 29

Week 29:  Legal and Ethical contexts in my digital practice

Teacher-student relationships

As teachers’ within New Zealand, the New Zealand Education Council’s Code of Ethics is guiding principles to:

•             Inspire the quality of behaviour that reflects the honour and dignity of the profession.

•             Encourage and emphasise those positive attributes of professional conduct that

              characterise strong and effective teaching.

•             Enable members of the profession to appraise and reflect on their ethical decisions.

•             Promote the ethics of the profession.

Hall (2001) states that “Over the last 50 years, changes in New Zealand society, and in the organization of state education have been accompanied by significant changes in the public expectations of schools and teachers. As a result, 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.”

Teachers need to make ethical choices “on their feet” when engaging with students and their whanau.  When building relationships I need to be on guard all the time to ensure my relationships with my students are relaxed, welcoming and safe but they are not friendships.  I am a professional providing a safe environment for them to learn in but there is a line that separates the personal, private me from the public me that is their teacher. 

I am aware that touching students is not encouraged and I have to say I find working with Junior students it is difficult not the give them a hug when they need reassuring or when they have been hurt and in the safety of the classroom or group of students I will use this form of kindness.  Recently though I found myself in a situation that I needed to think quickly to defuse.  Twins arrived in our open plan learning area part way through the year.  My partner teacher has the boy in his class and I have the girl.  They had recently come to live with their Dad and had only been with us for two days.  The bell had gone for break and the last of the students had wandered off when the boy came rushing back into the classroom when I was on my way out with a million things going on in my head.  He rushed up to me and asked for a hug and without thinking I said yes okay, as if I had been asked if he could use the rubber.  Then I stopped realised what he had asked for and also realised that we were on our own.  I said in panic, “okay but just this once, this is the first and last” gave him the quickset hug possible and sent him on his way.  Within minutes I relayed the situation to my partner teacher who is also my team teacher and we discussed the situation in depth.  It was a good reminder for me to use more positive affirmations and less hugs as I’m aware of the professional ethics of my profession.  He still comes to me for reassurance and although his needs are different from his peers I have worked out strategies that make him feel cared about with the need for hugs.

Our school requires all internet uses to sign a form with the agreement of their parents or guardians that states that they with use the internet for learning purposes only.  This form is filled out at the beginning of the year and only students that fill in the form are allowed to use the internet.  Teachers are also expected to sign simular requirements to keep us all safe and ethical in our learning environment.   Students are regularly reminded that they are to only work on sites allocated to them and everyone is supportive of adhering to this.  The students in my Year 2/3 class are very confident finding learning sites on the internet and are quick to report anyone who decides to stray away from where they are meant to be. Students are monitored when they search for information on the net for two reasons, firstly the sites need to be kid friendly for success and secondly they need to be on safe sites.  The future use of more technological equipment will require the same if not more supervision and awareness. 

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 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

Retrieved from:  https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/about-code-of-ethics