Reflective Entry 5: Consideration of Ethical Issues

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Ethical Issue Identified:
“It’s not fair!” As a teacher, my actions are guided by Our Code, Our Standards (Educational Council, 2017) and in our action plan, we gave special mention to the value pono - “showing integrity by acting in ways that are fair, honest, ethical and just.” Similarly, principle 2.4 of the Ethical Guidelines document mentions the need to be aware of those affected by research as well as those involved (NZARE, 2010). The critical comment “It’s not fair” came from students who were not part of my research group. They wanted to be involved. They had seen the original target group of students, meet with the teacher on a daily basis and being given the choice of working together or alone, using a digital device or not and felt left out and not as important as the targeted students. The beauty of 7 and 8-year-olds, is that they will call me out when they think that something is NOT FAIR. This is my ethical dilemma, competing interests of groups of students in my class.



Reflection on the actions taken to address the issue:

Using Hall’s (2010) questions to guide ethical decision making I fast forward to Q5 because Q1-4 have already been dealt with in the conception of the action plan. It was the answers to these questions that caused the dilemma.


Q5: Which courses of action are possible?


Q6: Can you identify precedent cases that are similar to this one?
There is no correct answer to this question. Many times teachers are faced with the dilemma I am currently faced with. Each situation that I have encountered with this dilemma has been different, yet the same. Many schools have a gifted and talented program to cater for those that need it, withdrawal classes for ESOL groups, special needs groups, or target groups or draw on learning assistants and other professions such as Resource teachers to help overcome these issues. Research suggests that the conflict of competing interests for students is complex and varied and that there is no one answer (Hall (2010), Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011), Cardno, (2012).

Q7. Which courses of action are least acceptable?
A table helped me to evaluate each of the options that I had identified as being possible. From here I selected two actions that would help me to decide on the action that I would and should take.



Q8: What course of action will I follow:
You can see from the table above how I evaluated the options and came up with two that I have accepted as actions that I will take. This was a nice way to compare all the options that I originally brainstormed and made me leave my own beliefs and values behind and evaluate the options in terms of the pros and cons of potential outcomes.

Q9: How should the course of action be implemented?
Taking heed of Hall’s (2010) statement that “it's one thing to know what you ought to do. It’s another to decide precisely how you will do it” (p5). I've decided that in order to do no harm to the target students, the issue of equity vs equality will be addressed through philosophy, rather than relating directly to the situation. This will help protect the target children from feeling that they are somehow different from the other children who are not included. Philosophy for children is a program that I use regularly in my classroom and the conversations are rich and allow each and every member of the class to form their own ideas about the concept being discussed. The other solution of including others is easy to implement - each session where the original children are provided with frontloading I will choose two other students to join us. These will be different students each time. Of course, I will keep evaluating the fairness of the situation over the rest of the inquiry and consider where, when and what further adjustments are needed to deal with this issue.

Wish me luck!

Reference List:

Cardo, C.(2012). Managing Effective Relationships in Education.  London: Sage Publications.

Education Council (2017). Our Code, Our Standards. Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession. Retrieved from https://teachingcouncil.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794 Downloaded from: https://app.themindlab.com/media/110902/view 

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. Downloaded from: https://app.themindlab.com/media/110903/view 

NZARE (2010). Guidelines on Research Ethics. Retrieved from http://www.nzare.org.nz/portals/306/images/Files/NZARE%20EthicalGuidelines2010.pdf


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