Ethical dilemmas teachers face - Research Paper Example

?Ethical dilemmas teachers face Introduction The profession of teaching is very demanding. “A teacher is meant to facilitate learning for an individual by creating a loving learning environment and providing adequate learning experiences” (Kishore, 2010). Often, the work is so much that the teacher has to take it home. Every lecture needs to be prepared at least one day in advance. It is far more complicated for the teachers to check the homework they give the students than for the students to do it. Each student has to bear his/her own load but the teacher has to bear the load of the whole class. In addition to that, the teacher has to take exams, check the papers and grade them. To top it all, contemporary educational setup is far more complicated than it ever was. There has occurred advancement in syllabus with the emergence of new subjects and research. The class has become more and more multicultural in terms of the ethnic origin of students. Consequently, ethical dilemmas for teachers have both increased in the level of complexity and number. “There is no single code of ethics in pluralistic societies” (Aksoy, 1999). Every day, a teacher gets into so many situations that require him to make a very important decision without the existence of a single code of ethics that he/she can follow. This paper discusses some of many ethical dilemmas that teachers all over the world face. The teachers interviewed shared their experiences and told how they tackled the situations and provide rationale for the choices they made. 1. Intervention in student’s personal life A teacher faces an ethical dilemma deciding the limits to which he/she can intervene in the personal life of a student (Kristian, 2011). This interview was from Mr. Brown who has been working as a private high school teacher for over ten years. This paragraph summarizes Mr. Brown’s account of the ethical dilemma he encountered in the school. Charles was a very active boy. His participation in the lectures was marvelous. He always did his homework on time. He had the capability to assist other students in understanding intricate concepts. He had wonderful teaching skills. When I had a question for the whole class, he would be the first to volunteer and solve the question for the whole class. One thing that was particular of Charles was that he would never miss the class. He had not been absent for a single day in his three years in the school. Then one day, Charles did not come. The following day, he was absent too. All the teachers and particularly I were very concerned about him. The school principal called him at the home number but nobody attended the call. The third day, Charles came. After the class, I asked him if everything was alright. That was when Charles told me that his step-father had physically abused him. He further told me that he wanted to shift over to his dad’s place, but his mom wouldn’t allow that because his dad had divorced her. I consoled him like I would my own son, but I knew there was not much I could do to pull him out of those problems since I was his teacher. Charles was emotionally close to me and considered me eligible to confide his secrets in. I told him to see me after the class whenever he felt like, and he did start to discuss his home issues with me frequently. I believe that “[e]ffective teachers often draw more openness from their students” (Reid and Stringer, 1997). But gradually I realized that he had become a little too dependent upon me, and would take my pieces of advice seriously. Although I tried my best to give him the most rational advice, yet after all I was a teacher, not a counselor or a psychiatrist. I was worried that if I intervened inappropriately, that could not only put his academic career on stake, but also damage his personality. On one side, I would make him more upset if I refused to see and listen to him. On the other side, I assumed responsibility for any consequences that he might see if he followed my advice, and it led him to the wrong point. “Therapists without the proper training in [counseling] may put themselves and the patient in jeopardy” (Schneider and Levinson, 2005). I really thought that the physical abuse had made him psychologically unstable and he needed professional advice and counseling. Therefore, I suggested him to see a psychiatrist. I personally recommended him to a competent psychiatrist whom I had known since the college days. In the days that followed, Charles started to come out of that emotional trauma and started taking interest in the studies like before. This is a common issue in our profession. We live in a society where divorce and abuse are not very uncommon evils. Students see teachers as parents and have a tendency to discuss their personal issues with them, thus subjecting them to this sort of ethical dilemma. 2. Passing good students with bad performance Teachers face an ethical dilemma when bright students do badly in tests (csa-pdk.com, n.d.). These are good students with poor results (Kristian, 2011). This is the summary of interview with Mr. Simpson who has served as an elementary school teacher in the private sector. Mr. Simpson has discussed the ethical dilemma of weak children that have a good attitude in the class. This paragraph summarizes his point. There are certain students who are very hard working but they somehow cannot manage to achieve in comparison to other students who are not as hardworking as them. I always have such students in the class in every session. Such students make five per cent of the total strength of the class. They behave so well. They are so punctual. I can feel them struggling to get my special attention and get a special place in my heart, which I do grant them, and then when it’s the exam, it pinches me hard to see the nibs of their pens choked upon the paper and their faces blank. I so feel like passing them seeing their behavior, conduct and level of participation in the class irrespective of their performance in the exam. They put me in a dilemma as their hard work will go wasted if I don’t pass them. But at the same time I am afraid that if I pass them, they would certainly not be able to fit into the next level of education. Nevertheless, I try my best to pass these students specially if they have repeated a year already, hoping that they would be able to make it next time. “If you're the teacher of these kids, you're going to try to give them the biggest benefit of the doubt to help them graduate” (Ortellado, 2011). I take this decision because keeping them in the same grade is no use as well because although they are not achieving like other students, yet they are aging just like other students their age. A student can afford to go one year back for a change, but repetition of more than one year is emotionally demanding and damaging for the student. 3. Learning important secrets irrelevant to the job “Do teachers have a right to look and listen intensely?” (Zeni, 1996). This is one question any teachers think of because they are caught in an ethical dilemma. Many times the teacher overhears such things from the students that he wants to bring into the notice of the authorities, but this is not what his job is as a teacher (Global Ethics, 2011a). A male teacher who has served in a private school for three years shared his experience in these words; I was roaming about the class when I overheard a student whispering in the ears of his friend that Tom’s (another student’s) father intends taking him away from the school after the break-off against the consent of Tom’s mother who has the legal right to have him. I personally knew Tom’s parents. I knew that his father was a man of bad character and also that Tom’s mother was trying hard to keep Tom out of his reach. Having heard this, I felt like telling Tom’s mother of what I had heard, but this could put me into serious trouble as I could be charged for having accused Tom’s father of a malicious intention when I had no objective grounds to base my claim on. On the other hand, if I didn’t tell Tom’s mother, she might face serious trouble. Teachers want to intervene but their decision making is guided by the ethical standards of the school (Blimling, 2002). However, I decided to keep silent, though I personally kept with Tom after the break-off to make sure his mother takes him from the school. I did not let Tom realize that I was guarding him or something. I saw Tom’s father hiding behind a tree across the parking area when Tom’s mother approached us. Rather than telling her what I had heard, I just told her that I have seen Tom’s father behind the tree to give her the hint. This did this because this let me a safer way out of the dilemma and also without a weight on my conscience. This was a very rare case to occur. 4. Punishing the cheaters Teachers face the ethical dilemma of punishing the cheaters (Global Ethics, 2011b) and the students that plagiarize (Rikowski, n.d.). A private high school female teacher with more than six years of experience in the school shared her experience in these words; Rosa was a very good student. She was hard working. She was often the first of all students to submit the assignment, and I never found any of her assignments plagiarized. The final assignment had a very high weight in the grade. It was beyond my imagination or expectation when I found Rosa’s assignment plagiarized. The school has a very strict policy against plagiarism. Any student found plagiarizing is relegated right away. When I was recruited in the school’s team as a teacher, I had taken an oath that I would abide by all rules of the school in all circumstances. As Rosa’s teacher, the school expected me to report Rosa’s case to the discipline committee that would immediately take action against Rosa. But this would ruin Rosa not only as a student, but also as a person because of the emotional trauma she would have to go through. On the other hand, if I did not report the case to the discipline committee, I would be a bad employee of the school. Being aware of the fact that Rosa had never plagiarized before this, I felt like calling Rosa in person and asking her why her last assignment was plagiarized. She told me that it was an accident and that she had submitted that assignment inadvertently. She even showed me the unplagiarized soft copy of the assignment in her USB. It was clear that whatever had happened was a mere accident. I also knew that the discipline committee would not give Rosa a chance for explanation and would just take action against her. But at the same time, the time to submit the assignment had passed, and it was unethical to give Rosa the chance to resubmit the assignment. However, I gave Rosa that chance because I knew it was an accident. My conscience was clear. A teacher sometimes has to make such decisions. Such cases are not very rare to occur. 5. Getting papers checked by others Checking the papers is a huge burden for a lot of teachers. There are as many papers as the students in the class and each teacher has more than one class at one time. This means there are quite a lot of papers to be checked. Some teachers tend to take others’ help in checking the papers. Some even ask a student they trust the most to help them with the checking of the papers. A private high school male teacher with three years of teaching experience shared his views in these words; In those days, my son Tom was not feeling well. There was no one at home to take care of him since my wife also worked and would not be at home until late in the noon. Usually, Tom’s grandfather would be with him at home to look after him but in those days, he was also hospitalized. I had about a hundred papers to check and I was finding no time for that. Usually, I took the papers home with me, but Tom needed my full attention. I had to make the result within two days. I asked the most capable student of mine to help me check the papers. If I didn’t ask him for help, I would not have marked the papers well as I had no time for reading them completely. But when I asked him, my job was endangered. If that student reported the matter to the principal, I would lose my job. Thank God he didn’t! I asked him to check the papers in good intention. At least, he would read the papers before marking them which was something I could not. Many teachers take others’ help to check the papers. “Getting someone to help grade papers is a practice that’s not uncommon on college campuses, but typically a teacher works with an assistant who has either taken the course or is majoring in the area” (Herman, 2011). 6. Adjusting unwell students in the exam hall A teacher gets into an ethical dilemma when a student is not feeling well in the exam. A male teacher who has been teaching in a public high school for over ten years discussed one such issue which is summarized here; It was 6th of December. The students were seated inside the centrally air-conditioned hall. It was raining and snowing heavily outside and the temperature was very low out of the hall. Students’ seats were arranged according to their grades. There were alternate rows of seventh graders and eighth graders. Suddenly, one boy in the middle of the hall started coughing loudly. He couldn’t help it. Students in the surroundings were being disturbed. There was not a single chair unoccupied in the hall where I could move that student. Also, shifting him would only change the neighboring students, and the disturbance would persist anyway. Besides, it was the last ten minutes of the test and I did not want to risk rearranging the seating plan at such a critical time. If I left that student coughing in the middle, the surrounding students would suffer. If I moved that student out of the hall, he might catch fever because it was very cold out there and he was already shivering and coughing. So, I just called that student upon the stage and offered him my seat because the stage was the only place in the hall at a distance from the students’ seats. This might not send a good message to the principal because the school was very strict about the seating plan, but I had no choice! Such cases are rare to occur. 7. Manipulating results to show personal efficiency Teachers’ desire to show good performance to the principal through good results of the students puts them into an ethical dilemma. “Bonus pay that rewards teachers based on student test scores can make things worse, in effect increasing the incentives to manipulate test results or give students improper assistance” (Callahan, 2011). A private elementary school female teacher shared her experience with a colleague teacher in these words; It had been just three months since Martha had joined the school’s faculty. I was friends with her and assisted her in every way I could. Martha confided her secrets in me. One day, as we were discussing the performance of our respective classes, I found that Martha’s students had performed exceptionally well. Of all the classes, the result of her class was outstanding. Martha received a phone call from her boyfriend and was upset about something. I asked her the secret behind that and she told me that she had manipulated the scores to prove her efficiency. It just slipped from her mouth. She would never have told me that in normal circumstances. Having realized that this was too big a secret to share with me, she started making explanations. She said that this was her first job and that she did not want to let herself down. She also said that she did not adjust the scores too much. She said that the principal had told her job would be at stake if the class did not perform well. But she had cheated upon the school anyway! She also put me into an ethical dilemma. As a responsible teacher, I needed to inform the principal about this, but I would not only lose my friend this way, but also endanger my own reputation if I could not provide proof for my accusation. S o I just suggested Martha not to do this again because sooner or later, she would be caught if she kept doing that. I chose this course of action because I had done my bit by giving the right advice to Martha without jeopardizing her or my job. This is a common issue in the profession of teaching. 8. Adjusting scores to make the school successful Teachers may also want to manipulate the standardized test scores because this increases funding for the school (Godina, 2010). This trend has become increasingly common among the teachers since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind policy. A public high school male teacher with four years of experience of teaching discussed this ethical dilemma in these words; Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind policy, teachers in many school have been instructed by the principal to be very lenient in their marking in an attempt to pass as many children as possible because the population of passing students depicts the success of the school. “Teachers are routinely falsifying pupils’ marks amid pressure from senior managers to inflate schools’ results” (The Telegraph, 2011). I personally served in one such school before this. I left that school because of the very reason. The principal called a meeting in which he instructed all the teachers to pass all students irrespective of their performance in the exams. The principal said that all that mattered to him was the reputation of the school and the satisfaction of the parents of the students. The principal said that the students’ parents were the clients of the school and that he did not want to lose a single client. I felt like a culprit passing the students who did not really deserve to be passed. If I doubled the score of a student to pass him in the exam, I should have given the student who scored 100 per cent marks 200 out of 100, which is plainly insane! Initially, I started marking the papers as per the want of the principal, but passing every student like anything made me lose my interest in the job. I knew that if I did not pass them, I not only made the principal unhappy but also put the students’ academic career on stake. Therefore, I resigned from that job because I could not see an amicable solution to the problem. These cases are very common these days. 9. Dealing with bribery and blackmail A teacher may be exposed to bribery and blackmail (Kristian, 2011). A male teacher with ten years of experience of teaching in a public high school shared his experience in these words: I was checking the papers after the school break off time. I thought the papers would take no more than ten minutes to be checked after which I would lock them up in the cupboard and leave for home. After some time, I heard someone knock at the door. I allowed him in. He was my student, one amongst the back benchers. He had a box of chocolates in his hand. He told me that the chocolates were for my kid he had seen the other day. I thanked him. He asked me if I had checked his paper. I said I had. He started explaining that his paper didn’t go well because he was suffering from fever on the exam day. I said, “You should’ve taken a medical leave in that case!” He said that he could somehow not acquire the leave. I said, “Sorry, there is nothing I can do for you now that the time has gone.” He said, “If you don’t pass me, I shall get you moved from this school. My dad’s got power.” Returning his chocolate box to him, I told him to leave. If I did not fulfill his wish, he could get me removed from the school’s faculty since that was a public school and I knew that his father was able to do that. On the other hand, if I fulfilled his wish, I would prove myself a coward and would be unjust to the rest of the students. Instead of passing him as he desired but didn’t deserve, I reported the matter to the principal who got that student expelled from the school. I did this because every student is equal to me, and I cannot grant favors if a student tries to bribe or blackmail me. I have done justice to my job. Besides, if I granted that student his wish, he would have found an easy way out of the trouble and would keep blackmailing his teachers. I decided to nip the evil in the bud so that he realizes his mistake and does not repeat it ever again. This case was the one and only of its kind that I experienced in my teaching career. 10. Dealing with religious issues in the class Students following a certain religion fast when others from other religions are tempting them to eat. This exposes a teacher to ethical dilemma. “As teachers, we attempt to instill a range of values into our students” (Woodruff, 1992). A private elementary school’s female teacher with two years of teaching experience recognized this as an ethical dilemma in her profession. Her point is summarized here; It was lunch break. According to the Islamic calendar, it was the month of Ramadan. There were some Muslim children in my class who were fasting. The lunch break was thirty minutes long. The school had a rule that every child would finish his snacks in the first ten minutes in the class and would have the rest of the twenty minutes to play in the ground before the end of the lunch break. The school had made this rule because before its enactment, a lot of children did not eat their lunch and their parents complained to the principal about that. As a teacher, I was obliged not to let any child leave the class before the first ten minutes of the lunch break are over. It was very painful for me to see that other children were eating in front of the Muslim children. Some children were intentionally making gestures and passing comments in an attempt to tease the Muslim children. One child said, “Oh mama, you never gave me a sandwich as juicy and tasty as this.” Another child offered the Muslim child a biscuit knowing that he was fasting. Children were tempting the Muslim children to break the fast. As children, they did not have the maturity to understand the ethics of religion and were too small to be punished for their mischief. Being a responsible teacher, I let the Muslim children out of the class before the other children. Later, I discussed the case with the principal and convinced him to change the rule on the grounds of religion. The rule was henceforth changed. I did this because I respected the Muslim children’s esteem and spirit to fast, and did not want any kind of offence to take place in my class. A teacher may face such ethical dilemmas in a multicultural society. Conclusion Concluding, the profession of teaching is not only physically challenging, but also emotionally demanding. Teachers face one ethical dilemma or another every now and then. This paper discussed only few of the hundreds of different kinds of ethical dilemma that teachers of both genders teaching at all levels face. Ethical dilemma discussed in this paper were; intervention in student’s personal life, passing good students with bad performance, learning important secrets irrelevant to the job, punishing the cheaters, getting papers checked by others, adjusting unwell students in the exam hall, manipulating results to show personal efficiency, adjusting scores to make the school successful, dealing with bribery and blackmail, and dealing with religious issues in the class. Most of the teachers interviewed in this research felt emotionally engaged and concerned about the students and their issues. This essentially tells that most teachers are more than just mentors to the students. It is the very emotional engagement with the students that makes the teachers as respectable and honorable as one’s parents. Although the teachers were careful not to violate any law of the school, yet they did take any measures they deemed could be of help to the needy in the respective circumstances. References: Aksoy, N. (1999). Educators’ Beliefs About Ethical Dilemmas In Teaching: A Research Study Among Elementary School Teachers In Turkey. University of Cincinnati. Retrieved from http://aabss.org/Perspectives1999/f18Aksoy.html. Reid, S., and Stringer, S. (1997). Ethical Dilemmas in Teaching Problem Novels: The Psychological Impact of Troubling YA Literature on Adolescent Readers in the Classroom. The Alan Review. 24(2). Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/winter97/w97-05-Reid.html. Blimling, G. S. (2002, Dec. 19). Navigating the Changing Climate of Moral and Ethical Issues in Student Affairs. New Directions for Student Services. 1998(82): 65-75. Callahan, D. (2011). Scores Too Good to Be True? Cheating at LA Charter Schools. Cheating Culture. Retrieved from http://www.cheatingculture.com/teacher-cheating/2011/2/28/scores-too-good-to-be-true-cheating-at-la-charter-schools.html. csa-pdk.com. (n.d.). Ethical Dilemmas – Examples. Retrieved from http://www.csa-pdk.com/ethical.htm. Global Ethics. (2011a). Keep a Classroom Confidence. Retrieved from http://www.globalethics.org/dilemmas/Keep-a-Classroom-Confidence/32/. Global Ethics. (2011b). Cheating Yourself. Retrieved from http://www.globalethics.org/dilemmas/Cheating-Yourself/67/. Godina, J. (2010, June 11). Teachers Manipulate Standardized Test Scores. Retrieved from http://neweranews.org/blog/teachers-manipulate-standardized-test-scores. Herman, C. M. (2011, Nov. 30). BU probes teacher's ad seeking grading help. Common Wealth Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Investigations/Online-Exclusives/2011/Fall/010-BU-probes-teachers-ad-seeking-grading-help.aspx. Kishore, L. (2010, Sep. 23). Is teaching a demanding profession? Retrieved from http://www.merinews.com/article/is-teaching-a-demanding-profession/15829826.shtml. Kristian, E. (2011). Ethical Dilemmas Teachers Face in Classrooms. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_8652566_ethical-dilemmas-teachers-face-classrooms.html. Ortellado, D. (2011, May 5). Study suggests score alteration on New York test. The Daily Californian. Retrieved from http://archive.dailycal.org/article/113083/study_suggests_score_alteration_on_new_york_test. Rikowski, R. (n.d.). Teaching ethical issues in Information Technology: how and when. Retrieved from http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC23/B9a%20Ruth%20Rikowski.pdf. Schneider, J. P., and Levinson, B. (2005). Ethical Dilemmas Related to Disclosure Issues: Sex Addiction Therapists in the Trenches. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity. 13:1-39. Retrieved from http://www.jenniferschneider.com/articles/Ethical_Dilemmas.htm. The Telegraph. (2011, Dec. 31). Teachers 'falsifying pupils' marks' to inflate school results. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8744510/Teachers-falsifying-pupils-marks-to-inflate-school-results.html. Woodruff, B. (1992). Presenting Ethical Dilemmas in the Classroom. Woodrow Wilson Biology Institute. Retrieved from http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/1992/dilemmas.html. Zeni, J. (1996). A Picaresque Tale from the Land of Kidwatching: Teacher Research and Ethical Dilemmas. The Quarterly. 8(1). Retrieved from http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/279. Read More