Page 13 - Inquiring into the Ethical Dimensions of Professional Practice

Vignette 6: Stuck in the Middle
Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) were commonly developed and updated through collaboration between the classroom teacher and the Learning Resource teacher (LRT) in the school board that I work for. Being the only member of the staff trained in the IEP software, the LRT has typically been the one to electronically input the teacher’s handwritten changes and updates. Over the past two years however, the roles and responsibilities of the LRT in my school have changed and he is no longer able to offer small group or individual support to struggling students in the Junior Division. As such, he has no time to participate in the development of IEP’s for junior students, and this responsibility has fallen solely upon classroom teachers. Now responsible for the entire IEP, junior classroom teachers have requested release time during the instructional day to complete this work. Our principal has decline these requests, and advised us to complete the IEP’s during our regularly scheduled prep time.
Feeling somewhat “stuck in the middle”, the LRT told the junior teachers not to worry about IEP’s – he knew that we hadn’t had any training on the software, and he said he would shuffle his schedule around and complete our IEP’s for us. We would just have to sign them. The ethical dilemma here centres around the LRT offering to write an IEP for a student that he doesn’t work with, and results in the possibility of classroom teachers accepting his offer, and having their names attached to a legal document that they were not party to developing.
Ethical Inquiry Cycle
Ethical Inquiry Dialogic Process
After reading the vignette, educators are invited to engage in critical reflection and dialogue related to the following ethical inquiry process:
1. Experience: Identify the ethical challenge(s), issue(s) or dimensions inherent within this vignette.
2. Reflection: Critically reflect on the underlying values or assumptions that are influencing the professional practices in this vignette.
3. Critical Analysis: Critically analyze this vignette through the ethics of Care, Respect, Trust and Integrity.
4. New Perspectives and Insights: Identify new insights or understandings have been gained from reading this vignette?
Ethical Knowledge and Action
Generate suggestions for enhancing the ethical awareness, sensitivity and ethical efficacy of the educators in this vignette?
Inquiring into the Ethical Dimensions of Professional Practice 11