Navigating the Gray Areas of Teacher Behavior

Navigating the Gray Areas of Teacher Behavior
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When we think of educator misconduct, we usually think of sexual misconduct - and rightfully so. Few things are more damaging to students, schools, communities and the integrity of the relationship between teachers and students.

We can't talk about professional ethics and education without thinking about the worst-case scenarios. When stories of educator misconduct appear in the media, it's striking how often you hear the same things: It's the teacher no one suspected, the one who spent years going above and beyond to help students, the club sponsor, the coach, the beloved face of the school in the community. With alarming frequency, these same teachers have been publicly recognized for their work with students. They often are first-time offenders without a criminal record.

In large part, that's why well-intentioned laws and policies intended to stop teacher misconduct, including fingerprinting and background checks, only can do so much. There's limited research in this area, but as part of my work studying ethics and education, I've interviewed teachers who have been convicted and sent to prison for sexual misconduct, and their stories are remarkably similar.

What I've learned is that too often we think of misconduct as an event - a line that gets crossed. In reality, it's a process so gradual that people don't always notice it. I've heard repeatedly about the dangers of the "slippery slope," where expectations placed on educators to be a caring adult in a child's life, when combined with personal issues in their own lives, can contribute to the development of blind spots allowing them to misunderstand how their actions may be construed. Those who receive public recognition can become alienated from peers, losing another opportunity for intervention. That's not to excuse their actions in any way - those who break the law and our trust as educators can and should be prosecuted. But it's also too late to protect the child at this point, and the uncomfortable reality is that teachers can encounter a broad range of situations well before they cross a legal line that are just as inappropriate and damaging to the students they teach. As I've written in previous articles, it's important for us as educators to be aware of how vulnerable all of us - we as educators and our students - can be, even if our behavior never crosses a line or breaks the law.

That's because even with the expansive role teachers play in students' lives - as educators, coaches, counselors and mentors - there's a lack of clearly defined boundaries for teacher behavior. Practitioners in other professions characterized by intimate relationships, including counseling and psychology, receive training that helps them recognize the personal impact of these relationships and react accordingly. By contrast, teachers are expected to navigate these complex relationships, while caring deeply for students, with no training in how to define boundaries and identify when the emotions that arise from the shared space of teaching and learning are putting them and their students at risk. The gray areas left untouched by law and policy are vast, complex and highly dependent on the school, student, teacher and situation, and almost impossible for teachers to resolve correctly on their own every single time.

Ethical standards can help govern teacher behavior in these gray areas. They can hold teachers accountable to a higher level of responsibility than narrowly-focused laws and regulations, and they can provide an avenue for teachers to discuss challenging issues and alert each other to the misperceptions we all can harbor. In their absence, we're often left to fumble through the gray areas alone and vulnerable to our own blind spots, biases and personal triggers.

What if I, as a high school English teacher, receive a love letter from a student? I'd likely be hesitant to discuss it with my peers, because I'd wonder if they would judge me personally for encouraging the student's behavior. I'd also be unlikely to share it with my principal, because he or she would focus first on the potential risk to the student and the school, and scrutinize my actions in and out of the classroom. And if other teachers happened to know the student, they'd be reluctant to warn me for all the same reasons. And in any case, gossip and innuendo would inevitably follow, and it might spread beyond the school into the community.

The way teachers are currently prepared and expected to work with each other doesn't allow us to address our personal challenges with the help of our peers and professional advice. In many places, even the clearly defined legal boundaries aren't discussed in teacher preparation programs or licensure requirements, much less the gray areas that can cause problems well within the letter of the law.

Professional ethics can help regulate teacher conduct, but not in the ways you'd expect. Unlike the law or school policies, ethical decision making isn't absolute - it doesn't say you can or cannot do this or that. It starts with the gray areas that exist in the countless interactions and decisions that make up teachers' day-to-day work. It acknowledges that in these cases, there often aren't easy answers. It challenges us to consider the consequences of our actions and to balance the competing tensions we face on a daily basis. And, it gives us permission to discuss them with each other in a nonjudgmental way, informed by standards the profession as a whole has defined.

Teaching has countless gray areas, but all professions do - otherwise they wouldn't rely on their practitioners to make the "right" decisions. Embracing these gray areas with ethical decision making is good for students, teachers, schools, communities and the profession as a whole. It places the responsibility in teachers' hands where it belongs, but it also provides the tools we need to successfully navigate the complexity of the profession, with the support of peers and an agreed-upon code of behavior. That's a big part of what makes any profession a profession, and improving teachers' understanding of professional ethics can improve education for the better.

 

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