Task 5c, Professional Ethics

As I was looking over the reader for this Task I found myself listing in my head my personal and professional ethics.  At first I compiled them as one big list, then I decided to decipher which ethics’ belonged where.  I have categorised them into the tow different ethic formats below:

Personal Ethics:

·         Positivity

·         Honesty

·         Encouragement

·         Dedication

Professional Ethics:

·         Discipline

·         Confidentiality

·         Communication

·         Punctuality

·         Respect

The first question that caught my attention was “Where do limits for responsibility lie?”.   As a Teacher, I am responsible for my entire class, their safety, their discipline, their attention span, etc.  These are all professional ethics, where as when it comes to my own responsibility, my own personal ethics come into play.

It is the personal ethics that control the way in which we make our professional decisions.  Metaphorically, our personal decisions create “a wheel” which decides for us in which directions we go in and how we behave in our professional environment.

Professional ethics in Teaching are more like a set of guidelines/ rules which have already been decided for us by a professional body.  However, it is our personal ethics which decide for us how we take on these set of regulations, and more often or not, it is our conscience that decides for us.

The reader states that “ethics is frequently not a case of black and white”.  This statement is true as there are so many options, opinions and other ethics around us which can trigger these opinions, and therefore set off a whole other set of questions. The reader addresses the topic of how the media industry has explored ethical issues in greater depth.  From observing these shows as a viewer (such as those used as examples in the reader), I find that those who remain firm on their own personal ethics, become biased to the topic in hand and will rule out all the other possible ethics (sometimes unknowingly).  Personal form is the strongest form as all your thoughts can be affected by your conscience and therefore shape the way you look at our society.

A Case Study in the Reader named “The Dance Class”, which focuses on how warm-ups are used, relates directly to my profession and in a sense to the topic of my inquiry.

The following quote from the case study states “Alicia subsequently observed two classes. The first teacher she observed, Bing, spent less than a minute on the warm up and did not do any cool down at the end of the class. The second teacher she observed, Flint, did no warm up at all and belittled one dancer in particular.” From a teachers point of view ad from someone who has done their 3 years of professional training, I find this outrageous.  From a professional perspective, not warming up a class of student dancers will lead to injury.  By not cooling down a class of students means their muscles are exposed to the outdoors straight after vigorous exercise which could lead to the muscles seizing up and therefore causing an injury.  From a personal point of view, because I have been seriously injured in the past, I do not wish that upon any of my students which is why I do everything possible to stop that from happening to them. 

         The case study goes on to say that “She interviewed Flint at the end of the class and asked if he had been aware of how he had singled out this one person for ill treatment. Flint replied, “I am only preparing her for the real world – if she can’t survive a bit of criticism in my class she is not going to last too long in a dance company”.  After reading this, it is hard to evaluate the situation without knowing exactly what was said to the student by the teacher.  However, if a teacher was publicly humiliating a student’s work in front of a class, then it is not acceptable.  It is possible the student may not have been able to do their work to their full advantage due to the fact they had not been warmed-up.  However, if it was a harsh criticism of their work, then I may have thought differently.  A student’s work can only improve further if they themselves decide to practise outside of the classroom.  Plus, when I was in training, there was one teacher in particular, and when he gave you a criticism and constantly went on at you for your work, it was considered a good thing.  It meant he had faith in you that you could do the work and was only pushing you to reach that goal.  If the teacher paid no attention to a student, it was because they didn’t have the passion or determination in his classes; therefore, there was nothing he could do for them.

I like the idea of what this student has done, and I shall use her ideas and transfer them in relation to my own inquiry to develop my practise further.