Consulting the reader on Professional Ethics has helped me to fit what I have learned from the previous two tasks into the theoretical ethical framework. Whilst looking into how ethics have evolved from differing theoretical perspectives I am able to begin constructing a framework for myself in which I can evaluate issues in my profession. Considering specifically the notion of Consequentialism, which has roots in utilitarianism and the writings of Jeremy Bentham and JS Mill rarely plays a role on my day to day practise. When looking at the specific codes of practise and regulations as to how my professional community practise work, I witness ideas from faculty members transform into actions taken with the hope that the act ‘maximises the good’ of the whole school, however the outcomes of what the act will try to achieve will always be considered first. This theory here states that, in effect, the act can only be classed as officially ‘morally right’ dependant on its consequences, but I am finding that how a teacher goes about their daily practise by acting and behaving in a way that will determine desired outcomes, with consequences already considered as opposed to waiting to see what they are.
Furthering this, Deontology can sometimes play a part here too. Kant argued that ‘the only absolutely good thing is a good will’, as a teacher my actions are always determined based on my motives behind them. So, if for example I decide to split a large class of mine into two separate lessons due to too stretched ages and abilities, my motive to push me to make this action is to enable each child to feel they are in a class of more similar ability and have more dedicated attention from me as the teacher. In this way I would hope to achieve more professional practice as each child will be able to be stretched appropriately according to their own individual needs. It is my ‘action based on duty’ here which is relative to the deontology approach to ethics.
Thirdly, thinking about ones character as a professional, and therefore how their actions reveal their characteristic traits rather than the rules on action and consequences links what I am learning to the approach of Virtue ethics. Reading into the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, it seems they put emphasis on ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’. What I am experiencing is how teacher’s characters differ determines extremely diverse teaching techniques, and inevitably the atmosphere of each class couldn’t be more different. For a student, gaining experience of many different approaches to how their teacher provides them with knowledge and skills will arm them sufficiently to cope when progressing out into the Dance world outside of their local school environment. So in this sense, the approach of being virtually ethical seems very important.
What is key to my learning here is to consider the difference between all three of these approaches. It seems the three viewpoints explained here consider that the degree of morality in each event that may occur in a professional environment situation lies in the way dilemmas are approached beforehand, rather than in how the moral conclusions are reached.
My profession is compiled of others like me who have occupations with shared characteristics in dance. However, depending on how much my occupation actually manifests these characteristics declares the profession or not. For example, when considering that ‘professionals’ must have three features to class themselves in this category, I know I fit into this framework as I have extensive dance training from reputable schools, and that this training has required me to develop a significant intellectual component to my personality (certain grade and exam levels and result requirements). Knowledge gained has then contributed to the organised functioning of society through teaching students of varying ages, developing their dance education and awareness of physical movement as a means of learning. The importance of fitting in with different theoretical ethical frameworks has meant focussing on maintaining my professionalism through keeping regular checks on my public liability and CRB checks (my licence to practise), how the schools I teach in run and their organisation of its members. Finally learning that by maintaining the autonomy of the work through working and networking with fellow qualified teachers who have much experience enables me to fit in the ‘professional’ banner whilst working in a way that adheres to correct ethical standards.
Looking at professional types from the reader, my qualifications and experience that make me qualify for both a dancer and a dance teacher put me under the ‘professional practitioner’ heading where my income in usually commissioned or contracted.
Referring again to my own specific dance practise, I have been considering which attributes of the differing ‘Arenas of professional practise’ (Reader 5) best sum up my role. For me, my code of practise encourages me to teach every student the same steps from the syllabus required for each exam. Ensuring I offer an equal approach to teaching is key, even though the abilities of the students may differ dramatically. A problem that may arise here is when it comes to exam term time, my judgement as a teacher may tell me a student is not ready to take the exam (lack of knowledge of steps, lack of strength etc). The idea around personal ethics here highlights that I would consider pulling the student out of the exam to prevent a failed result. I have a certain level of employer expectation to consider, everyone student has had the same amount of time to learn and contextualise the knowledge I have given then should perhaps take it at the same time as everyone else to ensure a degree of fairness. When applying ethics to a situation like this, the descriptive ethical issue here is that the case is each child has come to lessons, learn what they can and now need to proceed onto the examination to progress to the next level. However, examining the norms of my principles when trying to make moral choices highlights normative ethical issues here, as a teacher my concern is that they are not ready, and may fail. Again, personal ethics makes me think the purpose of exams is to learn the work and become solid on it, to take and pass the exam and have a solid foundation to then build upon to take the student to the next level, and so on. One exam progresses in terms of demands and difficulty levels, (single turns turn to double turns, double turns eventually to triple turns etc). Regardless of the result, if the student is not strong enough for one level, the object of stepping up to the next level on a solid foundation is defeated. Although I know this is a very importance principle, being the type of person I am, I also think about the consequences of pulling the student out. They may feel very defeated and possibly offended, almost like it is a personal attack, or that they haven’t been working hard enough. As a teacher, this goes against my own principles of encouraging all abilities. Also, the students parents may respond negatively, they may not want to trust my judgement for future work with the school for example which would obviously have consequence for my professional community. Exams are expensive, the question then lies do I let the parents pay for their child to take the exam, but in the event of them failing all money is totally lost?!
Reading into personal ethics really brings so many questions and points of views to consider, and very rarely can us as practitioners know exactly what is right in a situation and what is wrong. Realising the importance of ethics, and how they appear is so many aspects of our lives without necessarily realising
It is really improving me as a professional. Ethics can’t be avoided; it pervades all parts of our lives, personal as well as professional, public and private too. Whatever profession you work in, their ethical guidelines and codes of practise aim to deliver ‘good’ in any way that they can in society. The more the profession develops and becomes established, it seems they create their own set of rules and norms for their employees to follow and promote. The decisions and actions we take due to our moral judgements primarily boils down to our own personal interpretation of approaches to professional ethics.
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