Mind Lab Week 29. Activity 5: Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice. How much is too much?

Teachers in NewZealand are bound by the Code of Ethics for Certified teachers. Ethical understanding gives us boundaries, determined by society within which we are expected to operate our lives and interact with people. This code, or rules of conduct, exists because society dictates that teachers  “nurture the capacities of all learners to think and act with developing independence, and strive to encourage an informed appreciation of the fundamental values of a democratic society.” (Retrieved from The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers). This code of ethics means that we inherit a moral responsibility, as Hall (2001) states” largely because it is recognized that how teachers fulfil their public duties influences the lives of vulnerable young people. The Code of Ethics for Certified teachers is based on four main principles:

• Autonomy to treat people with rights that are to be honoured and defended
• Justice to share power and prevent the abuse of power
• Responsible care to do good and minimise harm to others
• Truth to be honest with others and self.  (Education Council Site)

These are guidelines by which teachers are expected to base their professional and by association, their private lives. What has changed over recent years is the understanding and interpretation of ‘private’.

We are living in a digital, globally connected age. We no longer require “everything to be turned off” at meetings, because we assume that people are using their devices (phone, ipad, laptops) to take notes, or investigate something that has come up in the course of the meeting. Where once we would have considered these actions to be rude, we often now accept this hiding behind devices as the norm. We are constantly interrupting our face to face interactions with communication on devices and we are repeatedly distracted by something on our device. Our children are the same.

With this relaxed attitude towards access to technology comes a more relaxed attitude towards access to the teaching staff in a school. Teachers are suddenly finding that parents are making friend requests on facebook, being followed on twitter, receiving snapchats and being texted by the parent community. It doesn’t matter now whether or not parents have our phone number because there are so many other ways to “get hold of us.”

This access gives rise to a dilemma, which is perhaps obvious as “human beings are social beings engaged in social interactions” (Collste, 2012)

How much is too much? How much access to their own personal life should a teacher allow?  At our school, like many others, we have teachers who form strong relationships with their parent community. In some cases the teacher is also a parent with children at the school. It is desirable that our teachers form strong relationships with their parents, but in some cases, the line between professional and personal can be crossed. Social media makes this line so much easier to cross than in the past. When teachers allow parents to friend them on facebook, they open up their personal lives to public scrutiny and give out a non - professional persona. How does this fit in with the code of ethics? Tensions are created amongst the stakeholders to whom the teacher is accountable.

(Retrieved from The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers).

This over familiarity that can emerge puts professional interactions at risk. At our school, we have advised that teachers have the conversation with their parents that friending them on facebook is not  within our school code of ethics (each teacher has a copy and copies are displayed throughout the school), as it is not in the best interests of the children. It can be difficult to discuss the needs of the learner when professional distance is not maintained and the ability of the parent to participate in learning conversations about the child could be compromised due to over familiarity.

Resolving the competing claims of different ethical principles and different interest groups is usually best achieved through reflective professional discussion where the interests of learners are regarded as being of prime concern. (Retrieved from The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers).

References:

The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers:  https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/ethical-decisions

Hall, A. (2001, April). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane.

KEMANUSIAAN Vol. 19, No. 1, (2012), 17–33 Applied and Professional Ethics GÖRAN COLLSTE Linköping University, Linköping,  Sweden Goran.collste@liu.se