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
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.
Hi Danielle
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog. I think you raise an interesting question about whether schools should be more active in giving whānau a variety of options for getting in contact with teachers, when it is difficult for them to make contact via phone. Like you, I have had very firm boundaries around my professional life. For example, students' whānau do not have access to my social media sites or cellphone number. However, given the variety of ways that we communicate with our personal family and friends, maybe for whānaungatanga reasons schools should be thinking about how teachers and whānau of students can contact each other via social media when telephoning is not easy for parents. I'm not sure how it would be managed, but there is a dilemma present where our ways of interacting in our personal lives keep growing in options, and yet school systems have not evolved to keep pace with making some of these means available for professional communication with appropriate protocols in place.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteYou most certainly don't have this dilemma on your own. I know of a few teachers that have friends also in the parent community, especially when they have children attending the same school they are teaching at. There is some good advise out there for teachers (and other professional bodies) around good practice in the use of social media. My thoughts are if the school has devised a couple of avenues for lines of communication with the families such as school emails or the likes of Seesaw (has a communications feature, then there should be very little reason for families to use a teacher's private phone number or FB for professionally based communications. I feel it is healthy for teachers to have a separate private life and feel they have the space to relax and switch off. You raised some very poignant issues and an excellent basis for further discussion in all of our schools.
Thank you for your thoughts Shona.
DeleteI have recently begun using Class Dojo this year and I agree - having the private message function on that allows for a quick and easy way for teachers and parents to converse without private social media being involved.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI have had this same dilemma several times, for me it is usually just around getting information for sports days etc. But yes, where does it stop interrupting the small amount of time we have that is our own, and enable us to have a healthy balance in our lives. How do we keep things professional without alienating the wonderful relationships that we have spent time establishing? I like your idea of not responding, and offering the email address instead. I email my parents regularly, so now they don't seem to contact me on my personal fb page anymore. I think next time it happens, I will simply respond in my own time via email. Thanks for the thought provoking discussion.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great piece of reflection. Your dilemma has only hardened my stance of not having a Facebook account. But from a position of complete ignorance with regards safety and privacy settings, my advice would be to keep "Personal" exactly that and if school demands that you have an online presence, then create a second Facebook account, purely sharing the passionate teacher you are. To assist you with any future ethical / digital matters please consider the Net Safe Organisation. They have a kit for school use http://www.netsafe.org.nz/the-kit/framework-learn-guide-protect
and an Incident Flow Chart that you may wish to run your dilemma through. https://www.netsafe.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Responding-to-an-Online-incident-A4P-Student-NS0082-v14.pdf
I'm still struggling with hitting the word count, my reflection is way too long, more of an essay than a blog. Good luck with your studies.
Andy D.
#aucklandwest #ethics #westauckland