Case Study and Ethical Reasoning Essay

The case study I am going to discuss is Case 10.1: Student Translator (Gorski &
Pothini, 2013, p. 103). Maria is a fifth grade student who has been having trouble
getting along with other students in class and during recess. Mr. Clark has had
several different students tell him that Maria will not include them in games or
activities at recess or calling them names. Once he received this information he
began to pay closer attention to Maria and noticed that she was having difficulty
getting along with her classmates and wanted to make contact with her parents to
let them know what was happening. He made several attempts to get in touch with
Marias parents through a note home, which he noticed a few days later that it
was still in Marias backpack, undelivered (Gorski & Pothini, 2013, p. 103), and
telephone calls with messages that he wasnt sure they would understand since
they were just learning to speak English. He sees that the mom is waiting for the
girls one day after school so he approaches her and asks her if she has a few
minutes to talk. She says yes but he knows that she is still learning English so he
needs someone to translate for him and he does not want Maria to translate since
she is the topic of the conversation so he asks her sister Marcella to translate for
him to her mother. I think out of the 8 key questions, fairness, outcomes,
responsibilities, and character are the most important in this case.
The first key question is fairness. How can I act equitably and balance legitimate
interests? Mr. Clark, has to be fair to Maria and provide a private meeting with her
parents and her if they want her to be included in the meeting. He also needs to be
fair to Marcella and not make her a responsible party in this meeting since she is
not only another student but also a member of the family. First in being fair to
Maria once he saw that the note did not make it home he should have asked her
about why she did not give the note to her parents and then he should have talked
to an interpreter to see if they would assist him in contacting the parents to
arrange a time that is convenient for them to come in for a meeting regarding
behavior issues for Maria. Since this would in fact be a conference about Marias
behavior Mr. Clark should be scheduling a conference with her parents and have an
interpreter present to help make sure that they understand what he is saying and

to help them relay what they want to say in regards to the situation. Offer a
flexible conference schedule so that families will not feel overwhelmed since we all
have other commitments. If Mr. Clark offers alternative conferencing times- such
as early morning hours, lunch breaks, late afternoons, and early evening hours on
different days (Seplocha, p.12) then Mr. Montes can make arrangements to be in
the meeting as well. If you need to meet with a students parents then a meeting
should be arranged so that the parents feel like their time is being considered
since we are lead busy schedules and need to make sure that we have time for
everything that we need to do. It is okay if you stop a parent after school to try
and schedule a meeting with them or to even let them know that you would like to
meet so that they can look at their schedule or calendar and then contact you with
times that they are available to meet. Sometimes impromptu meetings are okay but
when you are trying to communicate with a family in which the parents or guardians
are still learning English then it is only fair to them to have an impartial
interpreter present to make sure that all content being interpreted is correct.
According to Kristina Robertson in Tips for Successful Parent-Teacher
Conferences with Bilingual Families, it is very important that students are not the
interpreters (para. 9). Students should never have the responsibility of
interpreting information between their parents and the teachers or administration
at school. If the student that is being asked to interpret to the parents is the
student that is being discussed then they may not feel comfortable interpreting
for their parents. They may not know the appropriate vocabulary to interpret the
educational information. And they may not necessarily be forthcoming if they do
not like the information being presented (Robertson, n.d., para. 9). If the student
being discussed if the student interpreting or even if it is sibling that I doing the
interpreting then they may change what is being said so that their sibling or even
themselves will not get in trouble. Mr. Clark should never have asked Marcella to
interpret for him and her mother. She may be an excellent student but she should
never be placed in that situation. As an educator Mr. Clark should have talked to
the interpreter at the school or if one is not available the he should have
contacted his administration about helping him find someone to translate for him
during the meeting with Marias parents.

The second key question is outcomes. What achieves the best short- and long-term
outcomes for me and all the others? Mr. Clark should have thought about the short
and long term outcomes of the situation in which they were dealing with. If it was a
situation that should be handled quickly due to the necessity of the problem then
the conversation between the parents, Mr. Clark, and the interpreter should be
arranged and be taking place very quickly versus if the situation is not a necessity
then the conference can be arranged for a few days to a week away based on the
availability of everyone needed for the conference. When the outcomes are being
considered it needs to include both the outcomes for at school and at home.
In addition to helping us solve the problems at hand, asking for advice from
parents puts us in the mindset of working collaboratively to meet a challenge. It
communicates to parents, We know you know your child better than anyone else
and we value what you have to say. (Davis & Yang, 2005, p. 22).
When there is a behavior issue or any other kind of issue in which you have tried
everything that you can think of and the results are not changing then talking with
the parents or guardian is the best thing to do because they are the experts on
their child and are usually willing to help correct issues with their children at
school. In this case Maria was not including her classmates in activities at recess
and were calling them names. The first step was to talk to Maria about her
behaviors and see what she says about the situation but she denied the accusations
so the next thing to do would be to talk to her parents about what is going on to
see if they have any ideas why she is acting the way that she is. Mr. Clark has made
the correct decision to contact her parents but when he noticed that the note
never made it home then there is another issue that he needs to discuss with her
parents regarding her behavior. The necessity to talk to her parents is there but
the approach of stopping her outside of the school and catching her off guard is
not the way to initialize the meeting when he is looking to have the parents help
him come to a beneficial outcome for both at home and at school. When Mr. Clark
approached Mrs. Montes after school she could have felt like he was invading her
time and when he had Marcella interpret for him it could have made her feel like
her time was not valuable. Effective communication is based on respect for others
values, attitudes, expectations, and culture. Keep in mind that childbearing values

and practices are culturally embedded; differences may occur in norms, behaviors,
values, role relations and communication patterns (Seplocha, p. 12). When we take
the time to speak with the parents about their ways of approaching behavior issues
at home it helps them realize that we realize that they are the experts on the
familys environment-its values, child raising practices, and expectations- and the
family environment critically influences how the child learns (Davis & Yang, 2005,
p. 20). The families of the students are the ones who are the ones that we should
turn to when we have issues with students and their behaviors. Depending on the
cultural background of the family, behavioral issues would be handled in different
ways. When we go to the families for help in handling situations it makes them
realize that we do value and respect them and want their help in the classroom.
When a child is having a problem, parents may feel angry, afraid, or frustrated.
There could be a variety of reasons: Perhaps they think theyll be blamed as bad
parents. Maybe they speak a different language or a different English dialect than
the teacher or are confused by the school bureaucracy (Davis & Yang, 2005, p.
163). When Mr. Clark approached Mrs. Montes outside of school with her having no
forewarning could cause her to have some of these various feelings about how the
faculty and staff looks at her parenting skills Then when he asked Marcella to
interpret it could cause Mrs. Montes to feel like her children were being placed
against each other. The outcomes of the behavior issue would logically be different
if it happened at home versus at school but if the parents or guardians and the
teachers can work together and come to an appropriate behavior plan for both at
home and at school so that Maria will know the consequences for her actions in
both places.
The third key question is responsibilities. What duties and/or obligations apply?
Mr. Clark has the responsibility to protect Marias classmates from her calling
them names and not including them in activities at recess to making sure that
Maria understands the consequences of her actions. Mr. Clark also has the
responsibility and obligation to make sure that Marias parents are notified of any
issues that arise at school. So often, when feeling frustrated or stressed,
teachers and parents both get into a blaming, adversarial stance (Davis & Yang,
2005, p. 164). We are both here to help the child and make sure that they are
getting the most out of their education and life, so when we start placing blame on

one another it takes away from that and we are no longer focused on the student
and helping them succeed. The students and their success should be the top
priority of both the teachers and the parents. If were to have any hope of solving
problems effectively with parents, we have to transcend this mentality and set a
tone of Lets figure out together how we can help the child (Davis & Yang, 2005,
p. 164). If parents realize that we are coming to them for help and want their
opinions and ideas on how we can solve the issue together and are not blaming them
for the issue happening then we will be able to get more accomplished and come to
an agreement on how the situation should be handled in the future if it happens
again. Sometimes there are things going on at home that affect the students and
cause them to act out in a way to get attention but if we do not approach the
parents and the situation with an open mind letting them know that we want to hear
from them and that they are an important part of the picture.
The fourth key question is character. What action best reflects who I am and the
person that I want to become? Mr. Clark approached the situation first by talking
to Maria and then when she denied the accusations he watched her interacting
with her classmates. He then saw her calling her classmates names and not
including them in activities at recess so he decided to send home a note to her
parents about the situation. When he saw the note still in her backpack a few days
later he decided that he needed to talk with her parents so he made a phone call
and left a message. When he did not hear back he decided that he needed to try
again but this time he approached Mrs. Montes after school when she was picking
up her children. Before he went this route he should have contacted an interpreter
and had them give Mrs. Montes a call and if no answer then they could have left a
message that she or her husband could understand since Mr. Clark was not sure
that Mrs. Montes was understanding his message. By approaching Mrs. Montes
outside of the school and initiating a conversation about the situation right there
showed that he wanted to get to the root of the problem as soon as possible but it
also showed that he did not use every resource that he had available to him. As I
mentioned earlier it is very important that students are not the interpreters
(Robertson, para. 9). Students especially siblings should not be the ones
responsible for interpreting between parents and teachers when the conference is
about their brother or sister.

If you do not have an official interpreter available at your school, talk to

your principal and/or school district about the need to get one. If in-person
interpreters are not available (and you may not be able to get one for a lowincidence language such as Urdu or Farsi), there are companies that provide
interpreters over the phone so that you could set up a phone conference
with your students parents. (Robertson, para. 10)
If Mr. Clark would have followed an ethical protocol of contacting an interpreter
prior to walking up to Mrs. Montes and initiating a conversation right there then it
would have looked better on him. Even if he would have just walked up to her and
asked if she would be available sometime soon to have a meeting then it would have
been better because she would not have been caught off guard and Maria would not
have been uncomfortable with what was going on. Mr. Montes could have possibly
been able to arrange his schedule to attend the meeting if it was approached in
this way rather than having the impromptu meeting right outside of the school.
The idea of the impromptu meeting could have invaded the cultural beliefs of the
family depending on where they were from. Effective communication is based on
respect for others values, attitudes expectations, and culture (Seplocha, p. 13).
When parents and families realize that we value and respect their way of life and
want to be respectful of it then it will make any and all communication easier. The
impromptu meeting outside of school could have made the Montes feel like their
culture was not being respected or valued. Parents are the most important people
in their childrens lives and that they are their childrens first and most influential
teachers(and) remind parents how well children mimic them, even when parents
dont want them to (Wherry, para. 1). Children can see things at home or even hear
their parents say things and this will allow them to think that it is ok. Parents do
not always realize that their children are watching or paying attention to what they
are saying. If we have conversations with parents about ideas like these or even
provide them with the information in a newsletter then maybe we can help them to
see how much of an influence that they have on how their children act. When
talking with parents it is very important to focus on the issue, not the person. One
natural response when feeling threatened is to verbally attack the individual with
whom we are communicating (Communicating with families, 272). We need to make
sure that when we are talking to families about how much influence that they have

on their children we need to be careful to keep everything focused on the situation

or issue and not on specific people. We need to make sure that we word what we
say very carefully because even though we may not think that what we are saying is
offensive but to the person that we are talking to they can take it in an offensive
manner, because words can carry more impact than we realize, pay attention to
the words you use when communicating with parents Communicating with Families).
Mr. Clark should be very careful when he is communicating with Marias parents to
make sure that he uses his words very carefully so as to make sure that they know
that he is trying to solve an issue that Maria is having and not attack their
parenting style or make them feel as if they are being attacked personally. Looking
for a win-win outcome from this situation would be great for everyone involved. If
Mr. Clark can find a way to make sure that Maria would start including her
classmates at recess or stop calling them names then there would be more of a
classroom community feel.
If I were in this situation, I would listen to what the students were telling me and
then talk to the student about the issue. If the student denied the accusation,
then I would observe for a couple of days like Mr. Clark did to see for myself what
is going on and then confront the situation with the student again. I would let them
know what I saw and then also proceed to send a note home with the student to
their parents to let them know that I would like to have a conference with them to
discuss the situation. If the family does not speak English or is not very fluent in
English then I would make sure that the note is translated into their home
language so that they can understand what it says and be able to contact me in
regards to setting up a conference. If I do not hear back from them within a
couple of days then I would speak to an interpreter and see if they can make a call
to the family to assist me in setting up a conference that would work for all of us.
I would also make sure that during the conference we come to a positive outcome
for everyone involved. It would be very helpful if the parents and the student that
it involves would be active participants in the outcome.

References
Communicating with Families. (n.d.).
Davis, C. & Yang, A. (2005). Parents & Teachers Working Together. Turners Falls,
MA: Northeast Foundation for Children.
Robertson, K. (n.d.). Tips for Successful Parent-Teacher Conferences with Bilingual
Families.
Seplocha, H. (2007). Spotlight on young children and families. Washington, DC:
National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Wherry, J. (n.d.). 10 Things Any School Can Do to Build Parent InvolvementPlus 5
Great Ways to Fail!