Professional Documents
Culture Documents
RESEARCH PAPER
ON
“ETHICS IN EDUCATION”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I owe a great many thanks to a great many people who helped and supported me during the
writing of this project.
I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude to my teacher Mrs. Alka Singh who
gave me the golden opportunity to do this project which also helped me in doing a lot of
research work and I came to know about a lot of new things.
Secondly I would also like to thank my friends who helped me a lot in finishing this project
within the limited time. I am making this project not only for marks but also to increase my
knowledge. Thanks again to all who helped me.
- Shreshtha Aditya
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ETHICS IN EDUCATION
The definition of ethics is shaped by personal, societal and professional values, all of which
are difficult to specify. Some stress the importance of society’s interests and others stress the
interests of the individual. These conflicting viewpoints have dominated the discussion of
ethics for a long time and may remain in the future as well. Thus, the term “ethics” will have
The word “ethics” is derived from the Greek word “ethos” (character) and Latin word
“moras” (customs). Taken together these two words define how individuals choose to
interact with one another. Thus, ethics is about choices. It signifies how people act in order to
make the “right” choice and produce “good” behaviour. It encompasses the examination of
principles, values and norms, the consideration of available choices to make the right
decision and the strength of character to act in accordance with the decision. Hence, ethics, as
a practical discipline, demands the acquisition of moral knowledge and the skills to properly
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Philosophical Theories of Ethics
Decision making based on intuition or personal feeling does not always lead to the right
course of action. Therefore, ethical decision making requires a criterion to ensure good
judgment. The philosophical theories of ethics provide different and distinct criteria for good,
Three prominent philosophical theories of ethics are utilitarianism, rights and justice. They
are normative theories of ethics, which provide a principle or standard on how a person ought
to behave towards others by considering the right and wrong of an action. These normative
theories are divided into two broad classifications, consequential and non-consequential.
Consequential theories define good in terms of its consequences, and a best known example
consequences but by its intrinsic value and the best known examples are the rights and justice
According to this theory, the ethical alternative is the one that maximises good
(the principle of utility), which measures good and bad consequences in terms of
happiness and pain. He wrote as follows in his book “An Introduction to the
"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and
pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what
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we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, chain of causes and effects, are
fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think."
The terms “happiness” and “pain” have broad meaning and encompass all aspects of human
welfare, including pleasure and sadness, health and sickness, satisfaction and disappointment,
positive and negative emotions, achievement and failure and knowledge and ignorance.
(3) List the alternative courses of action for resolving the problem;
(4) Identify and calculate the short- and long- term costs and benefits (pain and
(5) Select the course of action that yields greatest sum of benefits over costs for the
Thus, ethical conduct by accountants based on this theory leads to consideration of all
This theory takes a pragmatic and common sense approach to ethics. Actions are right to the
extent that they benefit people (i.e. actions, which produce more benefit than harm are right
and those that do not are wrong). Thus, the cognitive process required for utilitarian decision
making appears similar to the cost-benefit analysis that is normally applied in business
decisions. However, there are important distinctions between the two concepts in relation to
the nature of consequences, the measurability of the consequences and stakeholder analysis.
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(b) The Theory of Rights
The theory of rights stems from the belief that people have an inherent worth as
human beings that must be respected. Therefore, according to this theory, a good
decision is one that respects the rights of others. Conversely, a decision is wrong to
the extent that it violates another person’s rights. In general, the rights can be divided
(1) Natural rights (rights that exist independently of any legal structure) and
(2) Legal rights and contractual rights (rights that are created by social agreement).
The natural rights are commonly known as human rights or constitutional rights.
Among many natural rights, the right to the truth is important to the function of accounting.
The users of financial statements have the right to truthful and accurate financial information
when making choices on alternative investment strategies. This right imposes a moral
obligation on the accountant and the reporting entity to prepare and issue, true and fair
financial statements. On the other hand, legal and contractual rights are important in the
mean that employers and clients have a legal right to expect professional and competent
service from the accountants. In turn, the accountants have a corresponding legal duty to
perform their tasks to the best of their ability within the constraints of their expertise.
contribution and reward. However, fairness alone cannot define the term justice.
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There are also other forms of justice, which include equality (assumes that all people
have equal worth), procedural justice (concerns with due process) and compensatory
justice (addressed the loss from a wrongful act). However, a comprehensive theory
incorporating these various domains of justice has yet to be developed. Thus, the
focus of this paper is on the theory of justice, which is based on the principle of
distributive justice. It focuses on how fairly one’s decisions distribute benefits and
burdens among members of the group. Unjust distribution of benefits and burdens is
an unjust act and an unjust act is a morally wrong act. Hence, under this theory, an
ethical decision is one that produces the fairest overall distribution of benefits and
burdens.
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Ethics In Education
Basically there are three parties involved in ethical education system namely students,
Teacher, being the most important facet of ethical education, is the torch bearer to the change
the whole scenario of education system. He is the one who could exemplify his ethical
behaviour in front of students. Students most of the time learn their behaviour from their
teachers. Right approach of teacher to teach the students inside the class room will make ever
lasting impact on the minds of students. It goes without saying that the principle of ethical
conduct lie at the core of teaching profession. The whole society can be remoulded by
Secondly, the responsibility for promoting ethics in higher education lies with the leadership
of colleges and universities. Like most efforts at organizational change, the energy, financing,
and inspiration must start at the top and must anticipate and verbalize a long term
commitment to ethical goals. “Bottom-up” schemes for change are seldom successful since
they lack the organizational influence to create a sustained, well supported plan of action.
Ethics issues permeate every aspect of university life from admissions to the classroom, from
hiring to curriculum development and from research to the athletic field. To alter the ethics
culture in an institution of higher education (or any organization) requires the highest level of
(a) Verbal and written commitment of the university president/chancellor, board of trustees,
alumni association, faculty and staff to the implementation of an ethics plan of action;
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(b) Verbal and written commitment of departments heads overseeing student recruiting and
admissions policy to an ethics plan of action for their areas of concern. Some possible action
items might include advertising that the student body is governed by a “honour code”, the
violation of which could lead to disenrollment. The hallmark of the admissions policy would
focus on the ethical selection of students to include cultural difference, gender and racial
(c) Faculty hiring guidelines that would include a thorough “vetting” of the applicant’s
(d) Faculty members to commit to and undertake curriculum revisions that would include the
(f) Faculty members to commit to ethical guidelines for the research into the publication of
scholarly materials;
guideline.
Lastly, students are also expected to contribute maximally by behaving honestly to their
work, duties and responsibilities. They should never restore to any malpractices during
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Conclusion
The writer has reviewed just a fraction of the literature available on the subject of ethics in
the workplace. The literature for the most part, supports the notion that the ethical behaviour
is good, that ethical behaviour is needed in the workplace, and that progress is possible in
raising men and women above their more prurient interests. Based on the writer’s experience
and discussions with university leaders, however, the notion of total commitment by all
stakeholders as outlined in the sample plan is probably unlikely. Cries of academic freedom,
unreasonable restraints and loss of flexibility would be echoed from the “bell towers” of
academia in spite of the intrinsic “good” intentions of the plan. All this does not augur well
for the “fast track” implementation of ethics at the university level or in the workplace.
Instead, progress in changing individuals towards a more ethical vision of their personal and
professional life will be a plodding effort, characterized by small successes and small failures
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