Activity 4, Week 28: Influence of Law & Ethics in Practice

What:

Because I teach in a city very close to my home town and many parents of the school are similar to my age, I have mutual friends with parents on social media, especially Facebook. In this environment, it is no surprise that I have been presented with an online ethical dilemma. 

Is it ethical to interact or converse with students' parents via your personal Facebook page? I had an experience where a father of a child in my class found me and messaged me on Facebook to discuss a behaviour incident that had happened that day. The father worked early in the morning and late into the night and it was difficult for him to be contacted via the phone. When I received this, I immediately felt that my professional image as a teacher had been jeopardised as my personal online life could be accessed in my professional word (Connecticut's Teacher Eduction and Mentoring Program, 2012).

So What:

As teachers in New Zealand, we adhere to a Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession (Education Council, 2017). Like many occupations, we hold a trusted position in society (Education Council, 2017). I would want to be assured that my doctor upheld a set of professional values, just as I am sure the parents in my class would like me to as a teacher. 

I chose to use Hall's (2001) questions to guide me through a decision making process of the above ethical dilemma. 

• Main stakeholder's and their interests: parents and whānau, school senior management and teachers are all stakeholders in this situation. Their professional reputation within the community is effected.
• Restrictions to my actions: A component of our Code of Ethics is 'whanaungatanga;' that teachers need to form positive working relationships with whānau (Education Council, 2017). They state that teachers need to engage "in ethical and professional relationships with learners that respect professional boundaries" (Education Council, 2017, p.10). I do not believe that conversing with parents using a personal Facebook profile fits this statement. 
• Possible actions and implementation: A solution is to ensure that all staff using Facebook have strong security options for their personal profiles, restricting whānau and student access. This could be difficult to manage. Another would be that all online communication with whānau is through a school Facebook page controlled by senior management, or via school emails, and parents are made aware of this. There would need to be a system put in place for this to again avoid ethical dilemmas for the person controlling the page. A further option would be that the school developed a policy for teacher's use of personal social media accounts in their professional lives.

Now What:

In response to this incident, I did not respond to the father's message, consulted senior staff that it had happened, changed my Facebook privacy settings and as a result, phoned the father to discuss his son's behaviour incident. I did not discuss the dilemma of contacting me via Facebook but perhaps I should have offered other means of online contact such as my school email. 

Upon reflecting on the above questions, I believe the best solution would be a school policy where teacher's use of personal social media accounts are not to be used for interactions with whānau and school owned means of social media are to be used instead. Within this, there would also be a school protocol to follow should whānau use teacher's social media accounts as a point of contact.This would ensure that there is a shared understanding of what it means to be ethical via social media. In doing this, staff professionalism would be protected and in turn result in effective teaching practice for the staff at the school (Education Council, 2017). 

References:

Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program. (2012). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas for Educators: Facilitator’s Guide: Understanding the Code of Professional Responsibility for Educators. Connecticut, US: Author. Retrieved from https://www.ctteam.org/df/resources/Module5_Manual.pdf

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards.Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

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