Would You Know an Ethical Dilemma If You Saw One?
Teachers generally enter the profession with an innate desire to do what's best for students. So it stands to reason that when they encounter situations where they're in danger of doing just the opposite, they'd know.
The reality is far more complicated. Even the most experienced and committed educators may not always be aware when their decisions, no matter how well-intentioned, could put them on a path that can jeopardize their relationships with students, peers and the reputation of the school in the community.
Consider a high school track coach who notices that one of his student athletes doesn't have running shoes - and doesn't have the money to buy them. Chances are that coach wouldn't think twice about paying for the shoes out of his own pocket. Then, after noticing the same student walking home through a rough part of town after practice, the coach may offer to give him a ride. That's when the coach discovers the student's family is being evicted, so he helps the student get a job working for a friend so he can help support his family.
All of this is well-intentioned, and it may well benefit the student and his family immeasurably, but the coach may have violated one or more school policies in the process. If the student is undocumented or too young to work, he may also have put his friend into legal jeopardy as an employer. And that's just the beginning - the student's teammates may tell their parents about the special treatment he is receiving without being aware of the hardships he faces. This, in turn, could lead to gossip and insinuations, which could spread via social media - which, in turn, could get back to the principal and lead him or her to investigate accusations of preferential treatment. So we wind up in a situation where a well-intentioned educator, doing exactly what we expect our best educators to do, ends up damaging his reputation and, quite possibly, valued relationships with students and parents.
We believe - and demand - that our schools should treat all students fairly. But the reality is that just as surgeons treat patients differently based on their diagnosis, the patient history and other underlying conditions, teachers also treat students differently, based on their learning styles and needs in and out of the classroom.
"Fair isn't equal" is a phrase that is used - and often overused - in education circles, but it truly reflects the delicate balance teachers face when trying to meet the needs of all their students - something that teachers do almost reflexively. And as in the example of the track coach above, it's easy to miss the long-term implications of small actions that have the potential to snowball over time and damage the credibility of individual teachers, the school and the profession as a whole.
As I've written earlier in this series, this tension is at the heart of why teaching is a high-risk profession. And it creates countless ethical dilemmas that teachers must navigate - often alone, and without the kind of training that can help them recognize these situations early enough to think through the potential implications. Teachers are only rarely trained on the specific laws and regulations governing educator behavior in their state or district. At best, they may be asked to sign a document acknowledging they have read and understand district policy. Almost never do they receive training on education law or licensure issues. As a result, on a day-to-day basis, they are guided by their own personal sense of what's right and our societal expectations that excellent teachers go above and beyond to help all students. But there's a massive chasm between those two guideposts of the law and personal morality. And when situations arise where neither provides a clear answer, teachers may find themselves facing an ethical dilemma without even knowing it - or knowing what to do.
Along with acknowledging the risks they face in the thousands of decisions and interactions they make on a daily basis, educators must also be aware of how easy it is to not realize that they're facing these kinds of potentially dangerous dilemmas until after policies have been broken and trust eroded. And since it's so easy to develop blind spots that prevent us from seeing the long-term implications of seemingly benign actions, teachers need ways to help each other identify these situations that don't smack of personal judgment, finger-pointing, or bias.
This, in particular, is where grounding teachers in a framework of professional ethics - in pre-service training and in ongoing professional learning with their peers - can be the most powerful. A large part of the power of professional ethics comes from how they can help guide teachers as they navigate the complexities of their role. But as in the case of the track coach described above, it's difficult to always be aware of the implications of these complexities as teachers are right in the middle of them, trying to do what's best for students facing difficult, and sometimes seemingly insurmountable, challenges. As we'll discuss in forthcoming columns, the real power comes from no longer having to go it alone.
