Week 29: Activity 5 - Influence of Law and Ethics on Professional Practice

(Creative Commons Image)

Legal and Ethical Contexts in my Digital Practice

The world of education has changed dramatically over the last five years.  Students are learning with a range of technologies in the classroom setting, and home is now connected to school even more within this Google Apps for Education (GAFE) era.  Students can share work done at home directly with the teacher for feedback/feedforward comments. In a flipped classroom, for example, students can learn content at home, and then interact with activities relating to that content the following day at school.  Students take photos, share photos, and use Google images when working collaboratively across the curriculum.  

These activities are shared with the teacher, each other, home and online in a range of different platforms.  

With all this activity now a valuable part of today’s education, what could possibly go wrong?  For teachers, it is important to be very clear about the steps we need to take to make clear ethical and moral decisions to the best of our ability.  Knowing what our obligations are is an important starting point, and all teachers need to revisit this regularly.  The Education Council’s Code of Ethics for Certified Teachers clearly sets out the four fundamental principles that govern all professional interactions.  They are:

• 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 to others
• Truth - to be honest with others and self

“Application of the Code of Ethics shall take account of the requirements of the law as well as the obligation of teachers to honour the Treaty of Waitangi by paying particular attention to the rights and aspirations of                       Māori as tangata whenua”.

Classroom Blogs

It is only natural that students want to share their work with home in the primary school setting.  The students get to share what they are learning, how they are learning and why they are learning with family members far and wide. This can involve published work, videos and photographs.  

As a classroom teacher, I have not been in the position whereby a parent has been unhappy about the sharing of their child’s work and/or photo being shared.  This week’s video entitled  The Commitment to Parents/Guardians and Family shows how this could arise.  

This is mainly due to our school internet policy that is signed by every parent on the very first day that a student starts at Westbrook School as part of our enrolment policy.   This covers their use of technology in the classroom as well as whether or not parents consent to their child’s photograph appearing on class blogs and/or other media that goes further afield.  

This could become an issue for teachers if their school does not have a similar policy to our one.  Parents who decide they do not wish to give consent for images to be shared have every right to do so and we always respect their choice.  As part of my ethical practice, I carefully check all media before sharing online to ensure none of these children are visible.  

One issue that concerns me greatly is photographs taken by parents of their own child at events like cross country, for example, when other students are captured in the shot.  These photographs may well find themselves on social media - with no parental consent given.  What happens then?  How should  schools address this?  Perhaps a note in the school newsletter reminding parents of their own ethical position on this, and how they would feel if it was their child in that situation.  

Jackie

Education Council. (nd). Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

New Zealand Teachers Council (2012). Commitment to Parents/Guardians and Family/Whānau. [video file] Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49804201