Week 5 - Practice - Laws and Ethics Influence

Our profession is a tricky one as we have worked hard for our degrees, been provisionally registered and been under the guiding hand or a mentor then build up our years in teaching.  Our parents / families in our school community know that but it still doesn't stop them questioning what or why we are doing things.  Sometimes we have to hold our tongues when suggestions are given to us or comments are made as that shows our professionalism. The reality is it is still an emotive job as we are working with children whose parents are, quite rightly biased.  

The Code of Ethics according to the Education Council of New Zealand for Certificated Teachers is the professional interactions of teachers are governed by four fundamental 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.

We as teachers are also to show commitment to learners, parents / guardians, family / whanau, society and to the profession, (Education Council. n.d.) and I am certain that most teachers adhere to this. 

For the past 3 years we have been a BYOD school - optional from Year 4 to Year 8.  The children and the parents sign a code of conduct regarding the use of devices.  They also sign a form related to where they are happy for their children to be photographed.  This includes our newsletter, facebook page, website and newspaper.

I have one family who choose to not have their child's photograph on facebook for their own reasons.  They are happy for them to be published everywhere else.  

The issue we come across is that I know who the child is, along with all the other staff members but when being involved with public, community events we have had the instance happen that photos are taken and are published on our Community facebook page.  What we have to think about as a staff is when we know photos are to be taken do we let the community member know they can't take photos of a certain child or is that breaching privacy?  My thought it is breaching privacy but all I asked was, I saw the photos taken before they were published and then discretely asked for certain ones to be deleted.  This was not acting on any code of conduct but just common sense before a problem arose.

The negatives related to this was the parent could have been very upset with the school in thinking we don't take any notice of her requests when if it had happened it would have been a genuine mistake.  

This has got me to thinking about school camp. We are away in 4 weeks and during our parent session where we discuss expectations I have made the decision for the first year ever to discuss photo etiquette.  After teaching for 22 years this is another place the world is changing.  We have police vetted our parents and always discussed confidentiality on camp but now I need them to think about the photos they take and where they will be published.  I had a wonderful parent put photos on facebook last year but this year we will discuss sending them all to me and I will out them on a disc and give to families, then it will be the parents choice to where they share their photos.  

The questions recommended from Hall ( 2001) will help to guide my thinking process when discussing with the parents about camp.  The questions being - 

• “Which stakeholder should be given priority? Why?
• What restrictions are there to your actions?
• Which courses of action are possible?
• How should the course of action be implemented? “ (p.5)

It is not going to change camp or the amazing experiences that we have on camp but certainly is another level of our ever changing world in education.

References - 

Code of Ethics for Certified Teachers 

Retrieved from:https://the.org. etiquette/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

Hall, A. (2001) 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. Retrieved from http://www. etiquette.govt. confidentiality/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers