Page 6 - Inquiring into the Ethical Dimensions of Professional Practice

Teacher Education and Professional Practice
Inquiring into the Ethical Dimensions of Professional Practice can be used as a resource within initial teacher education, continuing teacher education and professional practice. This booklet presents experiences from practice and sources for ethical inquiry. Educators may choose to reflect on the written vignettes included in this booklet individually or explore them in collaboration with colleagues. Critical exploration and dialogue of these vignettes can help to enhance the ethical knowledge and actions of educators.
Members of the teaching profession were invited to contribute vignettes from their teaching and leadership experiences that resulted in them reflecting on the ethical nature of professional practice. These vignettes reveal the multiple and complex dimensions associated with ethically guided teaching and educational leadership.
Vignettes from Practice
Vignettes are brief snapshots of experience (Smith, 2013). The lived experiences of educators are captured within this resource in the form of short educative vignettes. These vignettes illuminate the ethical challenges, issues and dilemmas encountered by educators within the context of their daily professional practice.
Reflecting on these vignettes of experience through dialogue with colleagues enables educators to critically explore the many dimensions that influence and impact professional practice. These vignettes are intended to help awaken educators to the ethical dimensions that are inherent in the decisions and actions that take place within the context of teaching and educational leadership. Ethically guided educators are conscious of these dimensions and are committed to thoughtfully considering these within the reflection and decision making processes they employ (Smith, 2013).
The vignettes included in this resource reveal many ethical issues and challenges related to various aspects of professional practice. Some of the issues that can be explored from an ethical perspective within these vignettes include:
• ethical responsibilities and obligations
• professional boundaries
• actions that undermine the integrity of processes associate with the assignment of teachers
• well-being of educators
• complicit actions that support unethical practices
• ethical responsibilities associated with mental health issues
• developing and sustaining ethical school cultures
• the influence of personal beliefs and biases on hiring processes
• lack of transparency in hiring practices
• compromising professional integrity
• ethical principles that guide actions.
Educators are invited to critically explore these issues with colleagues using an ethical inquiry cycle (Smith, 2013) which follows each vignette.
4 Ontario College of Teachers