Ethics and Professionalism in Teaching - Research Paper Example

Ethics and Professionalism in Teaching “That education should be regulated by law and should be law and should be an affair of is not to be denied…. Neither is it clear whether education is more concerned with intellectual or moral virtue. The existing practice is perplexing…. {A}bout the means there is no agreement; for different persons starting with different ideas…, naturally disagree about the practice of it.” Aristotle As Aristotle notes in the previous passage, the concept of education is a perplexing one, especially in the manner that it should be practiced. Should moral virtues or intellectual virtues be the central subject matter? If so, how does one go about teaching such? More importantly, even after determining what should be taught and how, how does one go about assessing whether teaching is being done effectively and in the appropriate manner? These questions are only among the numerous concerns educators today have with regard to the practice of teaching as a profession. This begs us to ask, can teachers be considered professionals, and if so, can a code of ethics to guide teachers’ behavior be established? As this essay will argue, teachers are professionals, however, because of the conflicting roles teachers have as educators per se and as role models, establishing a general professional standard for teachers, will be a very problematic although not impossible task. In order to prove its point, the essay will be divided as follows. First, it will discuss the different roles teachers have as members of a society and as educators in the classroom. Second, it will discuss the ethical questions teachers face as a result of its conflicting roles. Third, it will discuss what it means to be a professional. Fourth, it will then discuss the impact these conflicting roles and ethical questions have on the concept of the teacher as a “professional.” And fifth, it will then analyze whether establishing a code of ethics or standard for behavior is possible given the aforementioned problems teachers face as a result of their conflicting roles, and what these guidelines should be. The last part of the paper will then provide the author’s concluding remarks on teacher professionalism and ethics. All professions in all societies have the task of contributing to the common good. Compared to other professions, teaching is considered as the noblest job of all. It is described not only a selfless career, but as having the most significant impact on society because it takes upon itself the daunting task of educating children. Teaching’s greatest contribution to society, therefore, is to nurture the welfare and development of its citizens – the students. Education as opposed to the transmission of information implies an outward orientation of opening up someone’s mind to thinking and reasoning (Haydon, 1997). To achieve this, teachers must concern themselves with both intellectual and moral development. Contrary to Aristotle’s concern of determining which should be the topic of education – intellectual or moral virtue – education would be incomplete without the other. As a result, teachers are tasked not only to impart information to its students to help them become professionals in their own field some day, but also the task of ensuring that they become responsible members of society who could positively contribute to the common good. Based on these tasks, teachers therefore have dual roles in their profession. As educators, they have the moral obligation of imparting not only knowledge, but also more importantly, values to students. Instrumentally, they also play other roles in the community and in the school. This includes their roles as researchers, instructors, mentors, and administrators and even the roles they play in their personal lives. The roles of a teacher, the moral and instrumental, however, often conflict with each other in numerous occasions. On the one hand, the teacher has the moral role of imparting values to his students; while, on the other hand, he also has the roles he plays as an individual. Thus, the nature of being a teacher exemplifies the conflict between the public and the private sphere – to what extent should the teacher, as a professional, restrict his actions to ensure that morality is always exemplified through him, without curbing his lifestyle as a private individual? Furthermore, since teachers are in the public sphere most of the time, he has responsibilities to different sectors of the public – his students, their parents, and the institution he is working for. These sectors often have conflicting interests. This point to the question, whom should the teacher consider as his main priority? Socrates argues that it should be the student. He claims, “No craft or profession should seek its own advantage but should benefit those who are subject.” This argument, however, neglects another facet about teachers – that they are human beings as well who have their own interests. Should a teacher, then, forget about these interests for the sake of the student? As a result of these conflicting roles, the teacher often finds himself forced to make ethical decisions that are not easy to make. As previously demonstrated, there are more gray areas in teaching, making it difficult for a teacher, to make the decision. At times, he may even experience being forced by society to take an alternative over another; where, not doing so will bring unlikable consequences. These conflicting roles make it difficult to build an ethical and professional standard for teachers based on the definition of professionalism. There are three requirements that define what is professionalism. These are the existence of a shared body of knowledge or expertise, autonomy and control over its profession, and altruistic concerns. Assessing teaching, as a profession based on this definition, which has always been the standard for other professions, will always be problematic due to the unique dimension teaching has a profession. As it was illustrated in the roles teachers play in society and in the school, teaching is based on human relationships (Bush, 1954). These relationships include the relationship between the teacher and the student as educator and learner; the relationship between the teacher and the institution he works for; the relationship between the teacher and the community, at large; and the relationships he has in his personal life. These relationships make difficult to consider teachers as professionals, hence, making it difficult to establish a code of ethics to guide them. First, in terms of a shared body of knowledge, one might say that there is no shared body of knowledge in teaching. This is because since teaching is based on the relationship between the student and the teacher, their unique personalities will definitely affect the manner that the teacher will educate his students. The learning experience will vary from one student to another, especially in the case of one-on-one mentoring sessions. Furthermore, because knowledge varies from one field to another, from one level of instruction to another, and from one cultural context to another, the possibility of having a shared body of knowledge diminishes further. Second, in terms of autonomy, teachers are often limited and influenced by numerous groups in society. The relationship teachers have the academic community, and even society at large could greatly impinge in his ability to practice his craft freely. For example, the role of a teacher as an educator in the classroom is affected by his relationship with the academic community. A teacher’s role as educator inside the classroom is to make sure that every student learns from the knowledge that he is imparting, to achieve this, he sometimes uses unconventional means of teaching – digressing from the syllabus at times, conducting out-of-school trips, and perhaps even requiring students to do special projects to enhance their learning experience and use unconventional forms of assessment. Inside the classroom, the teacher is a figure of authority that should be respected and obeyed by his students. However, as part of the school’s academic community, his decisions must be guided by the encompassing decisions that the school’s academic community has decided upon. He cannot completely digress from the syllabus stipulated by the school, he cannot take students to out-of-school trips without the school’s permission, and he cannot solitarily set guidelines for student evaluation without the approval of his department. And third, in terms of altruistic concerns, the fact teachers play multiple roles make it difficult to think of teachers as having a shared goal. These multiple roles also imply multiple goals. Which goal should a teacher place as a priority? While it was already established that the student’s welfare and development should be placed first, teachers also have self-interests. Unlike other professions where pursuing one’s self-interest may coincide with pursuing the good for its subject, it is not always the case for teachers. For example, in the field of medicine, wealth and prestige could be one of the doctor’s self-interest. In order to pursue this, he must acquire knowledge, specialize in a field, and more importantly, make a name for himself by being a good doctor, performing successful operations and curing his patients. By doing so, a doctor can make a name for himself in his profession and eventually increase his fee. Consequently, while aiming for his own interests, he also cured a lot of patients. Thus, he was able to pursue his self-interest without having to sacrifice his responsibilities and the good of his patients. This kind of situation is not always the case in teaching. For a teacher to pursue fame or fortune, he must leave his students, to study further, make a research that could be published, and perhaps even aspire for higher positions in a university to make a name for himself. These acts, however, although they are not necessarily mutually exclusive with teaching does not necessitate being a good teacher as well. This illustrates why altruism is difficult to achieve in teaching. Thus, teaching may not weigh up against the three requirements for professionalism. This, however, should not mean that a standard cannot be developed and that teachers should only depend on self-reflection in order to assess their professionalism and ethics (although self-reflection would surely help). Instead, it means that perhaps we should look at professionalism among teachers from a more pragmatic point of view – one that takes into consideration the unique dimension of teaching – human relationships. As previously mentioned, human relationships are integral to teaching. It is what causes teachers to make difficult ethical decisions, it is what causes conflicts between the roles teachers play, and it is what makes it difficult for teachers to be considered professionals. By factoring human relationships in the way teachers are assessed, it becomes possible to describe them as professionals and to develop a standard of ethics and professionalism, which could be used to guide their actions. First, because there are numerous differences in the knowledge teachers acquire across fields of study, across geographical and cultural boundaries, and across different levels of learning, one can find a shared body of knowledge not by making these different fields compatible with each other but through accepting these differences. Perhaps, instead of defining “a shared body of knowledge” as the accumulation of expertise, it should be defined as the progression of knowledge where the presence of conflicting ideas indicate not dearth, but abundance. Second, instead of looking at the fact that there are guidelines that restrict and control the manner teachers practice their profession, one could consider the possibility of including teachers in the formulation of these rules. Hence, they become not simply rules, which were imposed on teachers, but rules that the teachers themselves created based on a collaborative effort. The presence of consultations and bargaining processes between teachers and school administrators illustrate such possibility. Last, altruism is not necessarily impossible amidst the teacher’s multiple roles. Instead, it can be made possible by taking into consideration what its outcome is in reference to the students alone, but to the bigger context of education. A teacher’s goals, no matter how self-interested it may seem will always have a more significant impact towards the value of education at large. Hence, this makes it possible to look at teaching and teachers in light of having altruistic concerns. Given that teaching is a profession and that teachers are professionals based on a definition of professionalism that takes into consideration the human relationships integral to it, is it then possible to establish a set of standards to guide professional behavior among teachers? Furthermore, it begs us to ask how strict and specific should these standards be to ensure that teachers perform their professional and moral obligations without curbing the teacher’s freedoms as an individual. Establishing a set of standards for teachers is a tricky one. It cannot be treated the way other professions are because, as this essay has illustrated, teaching has at its core human relationships. In creating this set of standards there are three aspects that should be given utmost importance. These are: the way teachers relate to its students, and the way teachers relate to the school and the larger institution of the educational system. While there are other aspects that should be considered in making a set of guidelines for teachers as professionals, the two enumerated above are the aspects that are unique to the profession. Guidelines on how teachers should relate to its students should be the foremost factor considered in creating ethical standards for teachers. This is because teachers deal with students most of the time, teachers have authority over students, and teachers have a crucial responsibility on their students. While there are certain rules that can be easily imposed on how teacher-student relationships should be guided such as in terms of prohibiting sexual relations between teachers and students, there are numerous gray areas that should be considered. One such area is the friendships that exist between the two. While it is ideal to ensure that a professional relationship is maintained, it can no longer be avoided today. While one can argue that the friendship between a teacher and a student exists within the private spheres of these two individuals, one cannot neglect the fact that this sphere usually intersects with the public sphere. However, since it will be unfair for the teacher to create a standard that impinges on his freedom as an individual, this becomes a problematic area. With regard to the manner that teachers should relate to the school and the educational system, on the other hand, it is imperative to make guidelines that ensure teachers avoid unethical behavior that may harm the school or the educational system as a whole. While the school can easily impose rules concerning proper dress codes, commendable work ethics, and other standards of proper decorum while the teacher is in school grounds, is representing the school in an official manner, or is dealing with official school matters, such rules become impossible to implement elsewhere. Doing so would be impinging on the teacher’s freedom as a private individual. Teaching therefore is an extremely complicated profession. This complication comes from the unique aspect of the profession – human relationships. Because every function in this profession involves human relationships in one form or another, understanding its roles, priorities, and goals has become a very daunting task. This should not mean, however, that guidelines or standards for ethical behavior should not be implemented. Instead, guidelines should be implemented in areas of clarity, while where ambiguity is present questionable acts should be assessed accordingly. Thus, while ethical standards can be easily implemented in some areas of teaching, the existence of gray areas in the life of a teacher makes it difficult to create guidelines that will encompass all possible situations that a teacher may find himself in. References Bush, R. (1954). The Teacher-Pupil Relationship. New York: Prentice-Hall. Carr, D. (2000). “Proffessional , professionalism and Professional Ethics.” In Carr, D. Professionalism and Ethics in Teaching. London: Routledge. pp. 21-38. Haydon, G. (1997) “Valuing Teachers.” In Teaching about values: A New Approach Cassell. pp. 151-159. Read More