Emily Soto

November 11, 2022

ECET 3020

“The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct offers guidelines for responsible behavior

and sets forth a common basis for resolving the principal ethical dilemmas encountered

in early childhood care and education. The Statement of Commitment is not part of the

Code but is a personal acknowledgement of an individual’s willingness to embrace the

distinctive values and moral obligations of the field of early childhood care and

education”( NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct 2011) Keeping the workplace professional

is very important to maintain a drama free environment. Professionalism encompasses

the way someone might carry themselves, the way they conduct their attitude and the

way they communicate with others. The code of ethics is there as a guide to use when

some might need it in the event of a situation. It provides rules and standards that are to

be followed.

The code of ethics can be used to smooth out workplace situations. It is used to

work out situations that might surface in the workplace. A workplace should be a

professional place and should foster an environment that showcases togetherness. I

am aware that there are some employees that do not follow the code of conduct. Or do

not care for them. It is important to have a work environment that has an open space of

communication. This is especially important to have when there are some workers that
don't often see eye to eye. Having a code of conduct that staff could follow is important

to lend when it's needed.

One experience that I can recall from my previous work place was when two

coworkers couldn’t work well together. This is how the scenario went, “Two after school

teachers( Evelyn and Julia) left the building to pick up children at another school. The

teachers had to collect ten children from another school and bring them back to the

location of the main school. Once the teachers and the children got back to the school,

the children had snack time. After snack time the children had homework help. Evelyn

was the one to walk around the room to help with homework while Julia was in and out

of the classroom and would only help three children with their homework.

Evelyn spoke with the director of the afterschool and she was informed to speak

with Julia to discuss her being more involved with the children. The director also told

Evelyn to speak with Julia herself as she is an adult and should know how to solve self

problems. Julia started staying in the classroom most of the day but still only helped

three students. Evellyn waited a few more days before speaking with Julia again on the

issue of being more involved in the day-to-day academics”. This involves ethics because

the “The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct offers guidelines for responsible behavior and

sets forth a common basis for resolving the principal ethical dilemmas encountered in

early childhood care and education”. It is something that most workplaces follow to

ensure that they run a successful program. It's the principles of a workplace.

NAEYC understands that those who work with children can face challenges that

have moral and ethical implications. This scenario goes hand and hand with the code of

ethical conduct. There are many things that can go wrong in an early childhood
workplace especially because the children are young. “The Code sets forth a framework

of professional responsibilities in four sections”. All sections address something

important. This involves ethics because two employees can’t come to an agreement

and can not work well together. One of the employees does not seem to care about the

feelings of the other person. Two employees are at odds. This is considered an ethical

issue. Ethical problems take place in the workplace when there is no agreement within

the employees.

The stakeholder who is affected by the problem is Evelyn as she feels as if she

doesn’t have enough support from her coworker Julia. Julia was approached but didn't

change anything. She also told the director of the program but the program director

informed Evelyn that, as an adult, she should be able to communicate her needs to

Julia and solve self problems. Evelyn needs to find ways to work things out with Julia.

This will help to allow for a successful program. Some suggestions would be to split the

children up. The way to do it is having Evelyn take five children and Julia take five

children. This will help even out the workload.

I would also recommend not giving any options, I know this may be an issue but

it is important to stand your ground. The two of them (Evelyn and Julai) are a team and

should be able to work as one and not one more then the other. I will also suggest

continuing through the school year. Communicating with Julia and informing her that

this is how it's going to be through the school year. Another suggestion would be to

have Julia pick the five children she would like to help with homework. Anything to get

her more involved. The best solution to solve this problem in a way that everyone will be

satisfied, is for the director to speak to Julia and tell her to help Evelyn. She can tell
Julia that she needs to work with five children. The director can also speak with Evelyn

and inform her to remind Julia that she needs to pick five children and those five

children will be the children she will help with homework throughout the entire school

year.

The code of ethical conduct that can be used to support are, “I-1.5 to create and

maintain safe and healthy settings that foster children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and

physical development and that respect their dignity and their contributions. 1-1.2 To

provide a high-quality program based on current knowledge of child development and

best practices in early care and education. 5- 1 We shall communicate openly and

truthfully about the nature and extent of services that we provide”. (NAEYC) I've picked

these because I believe these go well with the scenario. The principles fit the scenario

well as communication is very important in the workplace. If there is a situation the best

way to solve the issue is through communication.

I think the best way to handle this situation is to speak to both teachers and

have them meet in the middle. I believe the best thing to do is have both teachers

create a list of the children they would like to help for homework time and alo have both

teachers work through their differences.

NAEYC :Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment.(2011)

https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/

resources/position-statements/Ethics%20Position

%20Statement2011_09202013update.pdf