ETHICAL DILEMMA’S IN MY PRACTICE

BLOG POST 5

WEEK 29

ETHICAL DILEMMA’S IN MY PRACTICE

The Oxford dictionary defines ethics as moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity.  The Ethics Centre states that “Ethical beliefs shape the way we live – what we do, what we make and the world we create through our choices”.  They also state that “Ethics isn’t just an exercise for philosophers or intellectuals.  It is at the core of everyday life.”  We are given the ability to think and to make choices of how to act in various situations, so in theory, we constantly should be asking ourselves whether or not we are making ethical choices. As professionals, this is paramount.  Ethics is about relationships and being true to ourselves and all that we stand for.  It is also about having the courage to deal with difficult situations in such a way that we are consistently checking that we are doing what we believe to be the right thing.

Social media is a part of my everyday life these days.  I am an avid Facebook user and having travelled for a number of years, it is a very easy, instant and free way to maintain contact with many of my friends and colleagues from times gone by.   It is also a very good way of me keeping up with fresh teaching ideas and to be alerted to professional readings and initiatives that might help me in my practice.

I can see the benefits of using social media in the classroom.  It can immediately create an authentic audience for students and students can gain feedback instantly from ‘friends’ all over the globe.  It is also a very effective way of connecting with parents and the wider community.  Our school currently has a Facebook page and it is used to celebrate success and to give information.  It receives comments and occasionally questions from parents. 

The ethical dilemma I see that could easily happen is teachers becoming Facebook friends with students we teach or their parents.  When teachers, or any professional for that matter, become connected with students or parents on social media there could become a crossover between personal and professional lives.

Some of the problems I see that could arise becoming friends with our students/parents include blurring the line of professionalism between the teacher and the learner and the relationships between them, perception of  as favouritism, personal photos and information getting into the wrong hands

Through sharing information on Facebook, the circle of influence becomes wider so we need to become extra careful of what posts we are liking and commenting in order to protect other teachers as well as ourselves.

According to The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certified Teachers (Education Council, n.d) Teachers have a set of guidelines we must adhere to in order to maintain professional integrity.  If teachers were to become friends on Facebook with their students I believe that they run the risk of breaching the areas outlined including Commitment to learners (develop and maintain relationships based upon the best interests of the learners),

Commitment to Parents/Guardians and Family/Whanau: respect their privacy, respect their rights to information about their children establish honest and respectful relationships, Commitment to society: teach and model those positive values which are widely accepted in society, Commitment to the profession advance the interests of the teaching profession through responsible ethical practice.

 I believe that we as teachers need to have an understanding of our digital footprint and in so doing, realise that we need to maintain our professional responsibility to our schools as well as the wider profession.   We need to model appropriate etiquette around social media and keep forever mindful of who we are connecting with and what we are posting.

REFERENCES

Education Council. (n.d). The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated

Teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers

Oxford English living Dictionaries, definition of ethics (2017), retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ethics

The Ethics Centre

http://www.ethics.org.au/about/what-is-ethics

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS IN MY PRACTICE

BLOG POST 4

WEEK 28

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS IN MY PRACTICE

In order to discuss culturally responsive pedagogy, it is important to first address what this means. Gay (2002) defines culturally responsive pedagogy as teaching ‘to and through [students’] personal and cultural strengths, their intellectual capabilities, and their prior accomplishments.  Gay (2002) also explains culture as being made up of two elements.  These elements are visible culture and non-visible culture.  Visible culture includes the crafts, music and technology the can be seen while the non-visible includes beliefs, perspectives, feelings and opinions – the things that cannot be seen or touched.

In New Zealand schools, we have a moral obligation to be culturally inclusive of all students, and this is especially highlighted for our Maori students in the Treaty of Waitangi.  Cowie et al (2011) highlights the fact that if we continue to create educational opportunities based on a European, white, English speaking model, then we would be doing a disservice to our students from diverse backgrounds.  There are many things that we can learn from our indigenous cultures including that all people are connected by humanity even though we are all different, the importance and value of human relationships, the importance of spirituality, the value of our land and the need for it to be respected.  In today’s education system, we need to have some knowledge of Maori and indigenous cultural practices if we are to be culturally responsive teachers.

Jacqueline Jordan explains that culturally responsive pedagogy has at its heart “culture”   It is about world views, beliefs, language and values. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8)

For me personally, I believe that it is about having an understanding of and an appreciation of the ethnic diversity and the rich knowledge each of our students bring to our learning spaces and being responsive to this is vital in helping these students learn and grow in an environment that nurtures these cultures.   As teachers we need to be culturally responsive to our children.  Positive Relationships with students and with communities are paramount to becoming culturally responsive as well as a willingness to embrace new languages and customs.  We need to ensure each child can feel valued and respected in their learning environment if they are to become engaged learners.  (Cowie, et al 2011) acknowledge that teachers need to seek out and affirm student and community knowledge.  In order to do this teachers need to be comfortable to share the learning and to also take a turn at becoming the learner as is modelled in the tuakana teina model.

There are several facets to being culturally responsive.  Like any aspect of teaching, we need to be reflective of our practice.   If I use the Mauri model to reflect on our school wide activities, I would put us at the e Manawhanui ana level (highly motivated). (Potahu, 2011).  We are a new school so becoming culturally responsive is still in the developing stages, however I believe that our students and staff are offered a wide range of activities.  Our Kapa haka group is very active.  We employ kaiako of Kapa haka and the large number of children who actively participate in this is impressive.  We have students from many cultures involved in Kapa haka.  We have a strong presence of Maori language in our school.  Children and staff are actively involved in Liturgy in our school which has a strong element of Te Reo.  The staff and parents have been given the opportunity to study Te Reo at school on a weekly evening class.  This includes two marae overnight visits.  The staff, have a Te Reo lesson on a fortnightly basis and we are given resources to use in our classes.  As always, we can improve on these school wide activities, but given we are a school that has not even been open two years, I feel this is certainly an area in which we are at the very least, on track for.

I know that there are many elements of my practice and within the school where we can and should improve. The use of Te Reo Māori within my class comes quickly to mind.  It is often said that our students are our most valuable resource and we need to utilise their expertise.  As teachers and a school we need to nurture their confidence in their own abilities to take the lead and make good use of the Tuakana Teina model.

REFERENCES

Cowie, B.,  Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., Kara, H., with Anderson, M., Doyle, J., Parkinson, A., Te Kiri, C. (2011)Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki

Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2) 106-116.

 Potahu, T. W. (2011). Mauri - Rethinking Human Wellbeing. MAI Review, 3, 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.review.mai.ac.nz/index.php/MR/article/v...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8 -culturally responsive pedagogy

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS

BLOG POST 3

WEEK 27

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS

There are several definitions of what a “trend” actually is.  The Cambridge English Dictionary  defines a trend as  a general development or change in a situation or in the way that  people are behaving. 

According to Visser and Gagnon (2005), the term “trend” refers to the statistically observable change or general orientation of a general movement (Visser & Gagnon, 2005).   Wilson (2012) acknowledges that these changes would have an impact within a field or wider environment.

A Global trend that is identified by the US National Intelligence Council (2017) “Global trends paradox of progress” as well as the KMPG International’s (2014) “Future State 2030”  is the fact that technology advancement  is moving very quickly and that it is affecting every area of society.  This is evident in the education sector with the mere presence of the different forms of technology that are integrated into the classrooms and teaching environments.  Robinson (2010) also refers to the changing role of the teacher in the 21^st century classroom and attributes this to the fast emergence and development of technology as the reason for the need to change. We now live in a world where our learners are exposed to a whole new world of instant information because knowledge is at the fingertips of everyone who has technology available and access to the internet.

The Trends Shaping Education (OECD 2016) refers to this trend as the “Brave New World”.  This trend has specific relevance to my position as a teacher in the 21^st century environment as I realise more and more every day that teaching is not restricted to the boundaries of the local community in which you work. Over the last few years, technology has moved so quickly that teachers are increasingly connected in a variety of ways. This means that I need to keep up to date with the latest changes and advances in technology so that I can expose my students to them in order to better equip them with the skills required in the 21^st century.

In the OECD (2016) report, there is much evidence to support the uptake of technology across the world.  This is evident in our daily life with the increase in internet use including online shopping and global use of social media.  Teaching is ever evolving and now learning has moved beyond the simple imparting of knowledge towards actively seeking knowledge and their learning has made the shift from a localised to a globalised environment.

The Paradox of Progress (National Intelligence Council 2017) report explores the change in people’s communication, work and how we live due to the introduction and ever developing changes in technology.  It could be argued that the ever developing technological word we live in is partly responsible for a change in attitude of students.  Some of the observations I have made include a lessened attention span and impatience if things don’t happen instantly.  The world of technology is at our fingertips and little patience is required to acquire knowledge.   On one hand I feel that the education system needs to adapt to these technological advances and not resist them but on the other hand I feel that potentially we risk the loss of the social interaction of the students and the important skills associated with human contact.  It concerns me that the teachers of today could be ‘replaced’ by technology and I see part of the role of the teacher to be integral in the development of social interaction.

REFERENCES

Cambridge University Press (2017), Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus, retrieved from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/trend

KPMG International. (2014). Future State 2030: the global megatrends shaping governments. KPMG International Cooperative: USA. Retrieved from https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2014/02/future-state-2030-v3.pdf

National Intelligence Council. (2017). Global trends: The Paradox of Progress. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved from https://www.dni.gov/files/images/globalTrends/documents/GT-Main-Report.pdf

OECD. (2016) Trends Shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2016-en

Robinson, K. The RSA.(2010, Oct 14). RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Visser, L., & Gagnon, K. (2005). Defining “Trends” and “Issues” in Distance Education. Conversation with Donald Paul Ely Y. Visser, L. Visser, M. Simonson & R. Amirault (Eds. de la serie), Trends and Issues in Distance Education. International Perspectives, pp.83-89.

Wilson, B. (2012). Trends and issues facing distance education. In L. Visser, Y. Visser M., R. Amirault & M. Simonson (2nd Ed.) Trends and Issues in Distance Education. International Perspectives (pp.39-54). North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, Inc.