Page 8 - Exploring the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession through Anishinaabe Art

ONTARIO COLLEGE OF TEACHERS
Professional Inquiry
“Members refine their professional practice through ongoing inquiry, dialogue and reflection.”
Standard of Professional Practice, Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession (Ontario College of Teachers, 2006b)
Professional inquiry enables educators to become critically aware of the assumptions and beliefs that inform their decisions and actions. The inquiry processes included in this resource are designed to assist educators in recognizing the importance of engaging in thoughtful, ethical reflection and dialogue prior to embarking on actions and making judgments. The professional judgments and moral actions of educators are greatly enhanced through the adoption of a reflective ethical stance.
Engaging in professional inquiry is a powerful form of professional learning. Critical inquiry empowers educators in the ongoing process of refining and enhancing professional practice. As educators critically reflect on and analyze their practice through questioning and wondering, they are able to gain new insights, understandings and revisit beliefs and assump- tions that underpin professional practice.
Professional inquiry assists educators to crit- ically explore practices that are laden and interwoven with multifaceted complex ethical dimensions. Understanding and gaining deeper insight into these ethical dimensions can
help guide the ethical thinking, decisions and actions of educators.
Exploring professional practices through the reflective questions offered in this discussion guide may help to enhance understandings related to the many rich and complex concepts and issues associated with ethical teaching and leadership.
Core ethical concepts being explored in this discussion guide are embedded within the five standards of: Commitment to Students and Student Learning, Leadership in Learning Communities, Ongoing Professional Learning, Professional Knowledge and Professional Practice.
This discussion guide is an educative tool for fostering critical professional inquiry and dialogue related to educators’ professional knowledge, skills and practices. A Professional Inquiry section follows each artistic representations related to the five Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession included in this document.
As you reflect on the artistic representations and the Artist’s Reflection included in this guide, consider how your ethical practice can be further informed, deepened and extended.
2 EXPLORING THE STANDARDS OF PRACTICE FOR THE TEACHING PROFESSION THROUGH ANISHINAABE ART