Teachers and Teaching in Context 2014

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN
WORKING WITH DIFFERENT
STAKEHOLDERS
Dr James Ko
Overview – learning outcomes

 Understand teaching as an ethical practice and code of ethics

 Able to reflect on the professional relationships with stakeholders
(students, teachers, parents, community, teaching profession)
 Able to make professional judgment and choice in context

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 Issues related to professional ethics
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 Handling students with force

 Caring students too much
 Dealing with systems (schools, education authority, SBS, parents,
government, society)
 Contested terms related to professional conduct
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 Discuss differences between duty, accountability, respect, responsibility, and

rights
 Duty
 Is teaching ‘public service’ like a soldier? Or is it like being a McDonald’s clerk?
 Accountability
 Who gets what punishments by who when the code of ethics?
 Maybe discuss the consent, if not the language, of “shit rolls downhill” - often less
accountability at the top than at the bottom. Those at the bottom have more duty to those at
the top than the other way around.
 Rights
 Who is accountable when rights aren’t met? (often nobody, unless they’re legally binding -
not sure what the legal status of the Code of Ethics is)
 Respect
 Can respect replace duty and accountability?
 Can caring replace duty and accountability?
 Corporal punishment in schools – a legal issue
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 Corporal punishment is explicitly prohibited in Regulation 58 of the

Education Regulations 1971 (amended 1991): “No teacher shall
administer corporal punishment to a pupil.” Details here.
 Is corporal punishment banned in U.S.A.?
 There are 19 states that still let public schools hit kids; Details here
 Details by countries here
 Corporal punishment in schools – a moral issue
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 Is it always immoral to hit students?

 Basic post-modern dilemma - there’s always an exception (i.e., what if a
student pulls out a gun in class)
 Try to have students come up with a rule that always works (they can’t)
 Should it only be judged on a case-by-case basis?
 On sources of morality: assuming everyone agrees, why is it wrong or
immoral?
 Because we all agree?
 Because it’s against the law?
 Because you also don’t like to be hit?
 Because it’s always wrong to hit someone?
 Because it violates a cultural or religious standard?
 Because it doesn’t actually solve the problems it aims to address?
 Having an affair with a student – a moral issue
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 《男四十》 July Rhapsody

 Why Mr Lam falls in love with his student?
 Is it a moral or a professional ethics issue?
 Sense of loss vs sense of achievement
 Having an affair with a student - a legal issue
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 A man has sex with an underaged girl he can be charged with sexual offenses
involving minors under 18 years of age: a maximum penalty for 5 years'
imprisonment
 A person who commits an act of gross indecency with or toward a child under the
age of 16, or who incites a child under the age of 16 to commit such an act with
or toward him or her or another: a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment
 Child Sexual Abuse Statistics
 Protecting children from teacher-criminals in Hong Kong
 Protecting children from teacher-criminals in China
 Legal age of having sex with person of different sex: Age 16
 Legal age of having sex with person of the same sex: Age 21
 Age permitting to get married with parents' signature: Age 16
 Age permitting to get married without parents' signature: Age 21
 Controversial/Unprofessional teachers? System failure?
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 Australian teachers against the system

 American teachers against the system
 California students sue state over ineffective teachers
 Controversial competence of a teacher
 《告老師－－學生實況故事》何巧嬋
 金禧事件- More and more
 “非常教師”
 處理違法失德教師正面睇 and 專業失德非刑事罪行
 The Ms Lam incident
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 A columnist/journalist/critic's perspective
 A student perspective
 A teacher union’s perspective
 A teacher’s perspective
 How can you discuss the issue based on your references?
 Activity one: Reflective Educator (Reagan, Case & Brubacher,
2000)
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 Case 1: Maria vs another your closed colleague: who is lying and

what James should do and why?
 Case 2: Freda, a student teacher, vs Glenda, an experienced mentor
teacher: should Freda take the classes for Glenda and should she
keep secret about it and why?
 Case 3: Lenny, a new teacher, vs Frank, a cheating student: should
Lenny fail Frank according to the Code of Ethics and why?
 Case 4: Andrew, an ineffective and soon to retire teacher vs Jane:
should Jane keep her mouth shut about Andrew’s performance and
why?
 Activity one: Reflective Educator (Reagan, Case & Brubacher,
2000)
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 Discuss one case with your group

 Explain the dilemma
 Describe the preferences of the group members and their
explanations
 Try to come up with a SINGLE solution
 Remember to draw your arguments with your reference (CODE FOR
THE EDUCATION PROFESSION)
 One person report after 20 mins.
 One person upload your answer (<250 words) to Moodle
 Survey on professional conduct
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 教師操守情況問卷調查 (教育人員專業操守議會, 2002）

 Teacher-student relationship
 Collegiality

 Dismissal

 Workload

 Compliance to law
 Activity 2: Understand our grounds
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Check from below whether you have more BLUE or Green characteristics and select the most important three from each.

• Shun trading 避免交易 • Shun force 避免用武

• Exert prowess 好顯實力 • Compete 競爭
• Be obedient and disciplined 講求服從和紀律 • Be efficient 講求效率
• Adhere to tradition 堅持傳統 • Be open to inventiveness and novelty 講求開放的創造性和求新
• Respect hierarchy 尊重層級 • Use initiative and enterprise 利用主動與企業精緻
• Be loyal 講究忠誠 • Come to voluntary agreements 講究自願協議
• Take vengeance 要報仇 • Respect contracts 尊重合同
• Deceive for the sake of the task為成事不惜欺騙 • Dissent for the sake of the task 為成事不惜異議
• Make rich use of leisure 善用餘暇 • Be industrious 勤勞
• Be ostentatious 擺闊 • Be thrifty 節儉
• Dispense largesse 分配以示慷慨 • Invest for productive purposes 為生產而投資
• Be exclusive 喜獨享 • Collaborate easily with strangers and aliens 與陌生人和外國人輕鬆協作
• Show fortitude 顯示堅毅 • Promote comfort and convenience 促進舒適和方便
• Be fatalistic 聽天由命 • Be optimistic 樂觀
• Treasure honor 珍惜榮譽 • Be honest 說實話
 Systems of Survival in schools
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Think carefully which of the 10 features best describe what you find in the school
Moral Precepts (two fundamental ethical systems)

Guardian Syndrome Commerce Syndrome

• Shun trading • Shun force
• Exert prowess • Compete
• Be obedient and disciplined • Be efficient
• Adhere to tradition • Be open to inventiveness and novelty
• Respect hierarchy • Use initiative and enterprise
• Be loyal • Come to voluntary agreements
• Take vengeance • Respect contracts
• Deceive for the sake of the task • Dissent for the sake of the task
• Make rich use of leisure • Be industrious
• Be ostentatious • Be thrifty
• Dispense largesse • Invest for productive purposes
• Be exclusive • Collaborate easily with strangers and aliens
• Show fortitude • Promote comfort and convenience
• Be fatalistic • Be optimistic
• Treasure honor • Be honest
 Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of
Commerce and Politics by Jane Jacobs (1992)
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 Two moral systems: the Guardian Moral Syndrome and (GMS)the

Commercial Moral Syndrome (CMS); each contains 15 precepts
 GMS arose primarily to satisfy the needs of organizing and managing
territories. It became the code for warriors, governments, religions, and
some private organizations.
 CMS came into being to support human activities around trade and
the production of goods.
 Taken up the guardian role, schools have functioned more under GMS
and move to CMS because of rapid changing contexts.
Teachers and Teaching in Context 2014

SUMMARIES OF RECOMMENDED
READINGS

Dr James Ko

Supplements for Topic 3

Beginning Again: If I only had a home– by Ayers, W. (2010)

 Teaching is intellectual and ethical works

 Three basic challenges for teachers
 What should a good teacher do?
 Reflections

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Ayers, W. (2010)

Challenges for teachers: (p.154-156)

1. To see children whole and then to create classrooms where the
visibility of persons is a commonplace.
2. To look deeply into the contexts within which teaching occurs(social
surround, historical flow, cultural web)
3. To create an environment that will challenge and nurture the wide
range of students who will actually appear in your classrooms

Comments: Teachers’ works is all about background, environment,

setting, surrounding, position, situation, connection and relationship

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Ayers, W. (2010)
Good Teachers should be: (pp.153-157)

Find ways to stay alert-wide-

awake to the lives of students

Become students of
Honor their students and spend energy their students to
figuring out how they think, experience create chances for
real learning

Offers unblinking Needs to be in

attention, awe and
communicates a transition,
deep regard for motion, works-
students’ lives in-progress
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The essential learning relationship –by Mackenzie, S. V., &
Mackenzie, G. C. (2010)

1. The right things for teachers is to do what is in the long-term

best interests of the students.
2. Teachers play a critical role in balancing the individual and
collective purposes of a school. They should have courage to
stand up for students when their interests are in jeopardy.
3. Teachers also have a role in voicing concerns, bringing issues to
the fore, and standing up for students’ learning needs.
4. Teachers have an obligation to respect the interests and motives
of their colleagues, to follow established procedures.

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Important pieces of the puzzle–by Mackenzie, S. V., &
Mackenzie, G. C. (2010)

1. Teachers may find themselves in situations that raise complex

ethical questions about when to consult parents, what to tell them,
and how and when to respond to parental requests,
2. It is important for teachers to recognize their primary obligations
and to explain those clearly and directly to parents.
3. Be remember: The highest priority for parents is the learning and
welfare of their own children. When the conflicts with the boarder
purpose of the school, they will usually take the side of their
children.
4. Teachers must judge parents of different types, seeking effective
partnerships with each of them but on widely varying terms 22
Trust and respect Teachers as colleagues –by Mackenzie, S.
V., & Mackenzie, G. C.(2010)

Core Elements: Require teachers understand their professional

obligations and work individually and collectively
Trust and Respect to meet them.

Minding one’s own business is the wrong response to an ethical

dilemma.

It cannot be All teachers bear collective responsibility for the ethical

justified: standards of their school, and silence or inaction in response to
an observed ethical violation compounds the impact of the
violation on the school community.

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Clash of Philosophies–by Mackenzie, S. V., & Mackenzie, G.
C.(2010)

Come from the clash of 1 . When teachers find that

educational philosophies school’ s policies or
procedures directly conflict
Resistance Come from deeply
embedded school culture
with their individual
views/values, they confront
to change a difficult dilemma.
in a 2. It is important to grasp
Come from simple inertia
school the opportunity for those on
one side to engage in
Convince reluctant members constructive dialogue with
that change is desirable
and necessary those on the other.

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Clashing codes–by Mackenzie, S. V., & Mackenzie, G. C.
(2010)

1. Teachers may also encounter conflicts between their responsibilities to their

students, and their obligation to support the other members, and leaders of
their union on the other.
2. Teachers have to balance (how?) maintaining relationships with colleagues
with questioning and critique of their peers. They must weigh their various
commitments between professional organizations and children.
3. Teachers may find a third way through consultation and analysis. Such
solution softens hard choices by suggesting a compromise approach, a
win-win for everyone.

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The teacher, superintendent & school board & the
community–by Mackenzie, S. V., & Mackenzie, G. C. (2010)

1. The tension between schools and the communities that support them is
natural and inevitable. And it is a constant source of ethical challenge
for teachers and school leaders.
2. As teachers, we have a duty to think about ethics and act ethically all
the time.
3. The great responsibility for teachers is to do the best we can for all
children by making schools and the actions of people in them sensitive to
the ethical issues in policies and their implementation.

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References

Ayers, W. (2010). Beginning again: If I only had a home. In Ayers, W., &
Alexander-Tanner, R. (2010). To teach: The journey, in comics. Teachers
College Press.
Education Commission Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of
General Teaching Council, (1998). Establishment of a General Teaching
Council consultation document. Hong Kong: Government Printer
Mackenzie, S. V., & Mackenzie, G. C. (2010). Now What? Confronting
and Resolving Ethical Issues: A Handbook for Teachers. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin. (Chapters 3,4,5,7,8,10)
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