Page 5 - Inquiring into the Ethical Dimensions of Professional Practice

Professional Inquiry
The Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession can be used as an inquiry framework to reflect upon and explore the ethical dimensions inherent within teaching and educational leadership.
Professional inquiry assists educators to critically 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.
The ethical challenges and issues included in this resource
reflect the experiences of members of the teaching profession who participated in ethical institutes facilitated by the Ontario College of Teachers. These institutes were designed to help illuminate the types of experiences that result in educators critically reflecting on the dimensions associated with ethical teaching and leadership.
Educators can consider the ethical challenges and issues encountered in professional practice through the lens of each of the ethical standards. For instance, an educator might contemplate an ethical dilemma by asking oneself self-reflective questions based on the standards such as:
• How can I communicate Care to all individuals involved in the most compassionate manner?
• In what ways have I expressed Care for the well-being of students through my professional judgments in
this situation?
• What can I do to ensure that I Respect and Trust the professional autonomy and judgment of the teacher
in this incident?
• How did my actions and decisions Respect the principles of social justice, freedom and democracy in this
situation?
• How do I foster Trust with others through consistently embodying fairness, openness and honesty within
this complex dilemma.
• In what ways are my relationships with my colleagues based on Trust?
• What do I need to do to communicate Trust and empower the judgments and decisions of others?
• What do I need to do in this situation to ensure the Integrity of my professional practice remains intact
and is not compromised?
• How congruent were my words and actions throughout this experience?
(Smith, 2013)
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