Download Addressing Ethical Issues and more Exams Decision Making in PDF only on Docsity!
Addressing Ethical I ssues 17
Addressing Ethical Issues
In your work, you are very likely to face situations that involve questions of morality and ethics. You may need to weigh competing obligations to children, families, colleagues, and your community and society or make a difficult or unpopular decision. This chapter will help you sort through the following:
- Determine the nature of a workplace problem: Is it an issue of professional practice or an ethical issue?
- Determine the kind of ethical issue you are facing: Is it a responsibility or a dilemma?
- Engage in a thorough, systematic decision-making process that leads to an ethical course of action.
The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct can help you identify your responsibilities and guide your decision making when you encounter predicaments that involve ethics: considerations of right and wrong, rights and responsibilities, conflicting priorities, or human welfare. These ethical issues are apt to surface as you interact with children, families, coworkers, and community members. They may involve program decisions and might call on you to advocate for children in your community, state, or nation, such as in the Ineffective Child Protective Services Agency and Standardized Testing in Kindergarten cases in Chapter 7. This chapter and the four that follow explore some of the ethical challenges you might encounter and identify how the Code can help answer this important question: “What should an ethical early childhood educator do?”
Ethical Responsibilities
Ethical responsibilities are mandates. They describe how you are required to act and what you must or must not do in situations that involve ethics. They are clearly spelled out in the Principles in the NAEYC Code. Following are some examples of these mandates.
18 Ethics and the Early Childhood Educator
Early childhood educators shall … not harm children … not participate in practices that are emotionally damaging, physically harmful, disrespectful, degrading, dangerous, exploitative, or intimidating to children (P-1.1) … use appropriate assessment systems, which include multiple sources of information (P-1.5) … not deny family members access to their child’s classroom or program setting (P-2.1)
… make every effort to communicate effectively with all families in a language that they understand (P-2.5) … maintain confidentiality and … respect the family’s right to privacy (P-2.13)
… not participate in practices that discriminate against a coworker because of sex, race, national origin, religious beliefs or other affiliations, age, marital status/family structure, disability, or sexual orientation (P-3A.4) … be familiar with laws and regulations that serve to protect the children in our programs and be vigilant in ensuring that these laws and regulations are followed (P-4.6) In addition to the responsibilities outlined in the Code, program administrators’ responsibilities call on them to … ensure that the programs we administer are safe and developmentally appropriate in accordance with standards of the field (P-1.2)
… develop enrollment policies that clearly describe admission policies and priorities (P-2.5) … work to ensure that ongoing training is available and accessible (P-3.8) … manage resources responsibly and accurately account for their use (P-4.3)
Accepting the responsibilities laid out in the Principles may mean that you must take an unpopular position, gather more information, or change practices that you are comfortable with. For example, you may need to challenge a director who has not taken steps to translate program materials for the Hmong families whose children have recently enrolled in her program. When you learn you have a responsibility to use multiple sources of information to appropriately assess children, you may decide to find an assessment that is more comprehensive than the checklist you’ve been using. If you are a program director, you may find you have an obligation to update your program’s outdated staff manual so it accurately describes current policies and standards. Think about how you might respond if, on the third rainy afternoon in a row, the children are restless and the teacher in the next room suggests that you show them a popular animated movie that the children in her group love. The movie offers no educational value.
20 Ethics and the Early Childhood Educator
dilemma. The Ideal of maintaining a healthy setting that fosters children’s development and the Principle that calls for early childhood educators not to do anything that might harm a child conflict with the Ideals of respecting his family’s preferences and the importance of creating a partnership with them.
- Third, dilemmas rarely have simple answers. An ethical dilemma cannot be resolved by simply following the rules. In fact, you won’t find easy resolutions to dilemmas in this or any other book. You can, however, learn to work through the process of making these difficult decisions by skillfully relying on the guidance provided by the Code.
Analyzing and Addressing Workplace Issues:
A Framework
When you encounter an issue or problem, it is helpful to approach it using a multistep process. The following text and graphics describe this framework for addressing workplace problems.
Part I—Determine the Nature of the Problem
Is it an ethical issue? The first step to take when you encounter a workplace problem is to ask yourself, “Does it involve an issue of right or wrong, a duty or an obligation, human welfare, or individuals’ best interests?” If you answer no, it is not an ethical issue (say, for example, another teacher often borrows supplies from you and does not return or replace them). You can handle these issues as you would any workplace concern. If you answer yes, however, you are facing an issue that involves ethics. Is it a legal responsibility? If an ethical issue involves a legal responsibility, you must obey the law. The Suspected Child Abuse case in Chapter 4 and the Ineffective Child Protective Services Agency case in Chapter 7, both of which involved suspected child abuse, illustrate examples of legal responsibilities. Is it an ethical responsibility or an ethical dilemma? If the issue involves ethics and is not a matter of law, ask yourself, “Is this an ethical responsibility or an ethical dilemma?” What you do next will depend on how you answer that question. As noted previously, ethical responsibilities are mandates that are clearly spelled out by the Principles of the NAEYC Code and that you must always honor. If you determine that a situation involves ethics but is not a clear-cut responsibility, you are probably facing an ethical dilemma. The graphic on page 21 illustrates the essential first steps to take when analyzing and addressing any workplace issue.
Part II—Analyze the Ethical Dilemma
When you are facing an ethical dilemma, use the systematic process described in the pages that follow (and illustrated in the graphic on page 27) to help you decide on a defensible course of action. This process can be challenging because a dilemma puts the legitimate interests of one person or group in conflict with those of another person or group. This
Addressing Ethical I ssues 21
might mean that you must consider whether to place the needs of a child or his parent first or whether to protect the rights of the group even if doing so limits the options of an individual child. Finding a resolution to an ethical dilemma requires balancing the interests, needs, and priorities of one person or group of individuals against those of another while trying to maintain positive relationships with everyone involved. Some ethical dilemmas demand an immediate response. If an angry mother demands to know who bit her toddler, you need to respond on the spot. That doesn’t mean, however, that your actions should be less intentional than if you had time to think through the request. It will be easier to respond under pressure in such situations if you are familiar with the Code, know that you have an ethical obligation to maintain confidentiality, and have had enough experience using the Code to respond in a way that feels like second nature.
Seek an appropriate solution
Does it involve ethics?
Issues of right and wrong, duty and obligation
Follow the law Is it a legal responsibility?
Yes
Yes
Do what is right
Required by statute
Required by the Is it an ethical responsibility? NAEYC Code
No
Yes
Analyzing and Addressing Workplace Issues Part I: Determine the Nature of the Problem
Ethical Dilemma: go to Part II on page 27
No
A moral conflict that involves a choice between conflicting values and responsibilities
Identify a workplace problem
No
Addressing Ethical I ssues 23
On the other hand, the teacher might refuse to honor the mother’s request and allow the child to nap with the other children. She could justify this decision with Ideal 1.5, which states that early childhood educators should strive to create safe and healthy settings that foster children’s healthy development. She knows that most 4-year-olds need a nap after lunch, and she has observed that this child needs a nap in order to have a productive afternoon. Either decision can be justified, and each involves some benefits and some costs. The conflicting obligations in a situation may be clearer if you summarize the choice between alternatives. You could think about The Nap case like this: “Should I do what I think is best for the child or should I honor the mother’s request?”
Have you ever faced a situation in which you had to choose between two justifiable alternatives? What were the competing interests? How did you respond? How did you determine the right thing to do?
2. Brainstorm Possible Resolutions
When you understand the conflicting values and responsibilities involved, brainstorm some possible responses to the situation. Generate ideas without analyzing them or rejecting any, and make a list of all the possible responses you can think of. Next, consider the feasibility and fairness of each response. Some might be unreasonably harsh, like telling the mother no without considering what you could do to accommodate her request. Some might be morally indefensible, such as letting the child sleep and then telling him “You almost fell asleep” so his mother wouldn’t know he had napped. Other possible responses may include courses of action that would resolve the problem without forcing you to make a difficult decision (see the next section on ethical finesse). And some may seem reasonable but would require you to give the needs of one stakeholder (the mother or the child) priority over those of the other. Consider each of the approaches and eliminate responses that are unacceptable so you can identify some courses of action you feel could be justified by relying on the Code.
3. Consider Ethical Finesse
When you are clear about the conflicting values and responsibilities and have brainstormed some possible responses to the situation, think about whether there is a way to use ethical finesse —a creative response to an ethical dilemma that meets the needs of everyone involved and allows the educator to avoid having to make a difficult decision. It is likely that many of the dilemmas you encounter can be addressed amicably by finesse. Compromising and negotiating without having to choose the needs of one party over the other is almost always the better route.
24 Ethics and the Early Childhood Educator
In the nap situation, could the teacher negotiate a resolution that meets both the parent’s and the child’s needs? The teacher could help the mother develop more effective bedtime routines for the child, or she could try letting the child take only a short nap. She could have him go to another classroom where children rest but do not sleep in the afternoon, or she and his mother might come up with some other arrangement that is acceptable to them both.
Ethical finesse can help alleviate many problems. In most situations, it is the first approach you will try, but it does not always resolve the problem. Understand your options and be prepared to make a difficult decision if your attempts at finesse are not feasible or successful.
4. Look for Guidance in the NAEYC Code
When you realize that a dilemma cannot be handled with finesse, turn to the Code to determine a morally defensible resolution and prepare to act. Begin by identifying which, if any, of the Code’s Core Values apply to the situation. Core Values do not address every dilemma, but when they do, they will remind you that you should make every effort to honor these important foundational beliefs of the field. After you consider the Core Values, carefully review all of the Code’s Ideals and Principles. They are based on the Core Values but offer more specific guidance and will help clarify your obligations. It is important to review the entire Code because some situations are addressed in several sections, as you will see in the analyses of several cases in the chapters that follow. This process will help you prioritize the conflicting values and responsibilities that make this situation an ethical dilemma. It may be helpful to list all the items related to the situation you are facing. Next, ask yourself if you have all of the information you need to resolve the problem. Check the accuracy of your information or gather additional facts by talking with and observing children and by talking with families, staff members, or specialists who have relevant expertise. Depending on the situation, you may also want to review school or center policies, as the teacher did in the No Hugging case in Chapter 6 when her principal told the staff not to hug students or use any physical affection. Finally, decide how to best prioritize the relevant items in the Code, come up with one or more resolutions that you believe are justifiable, and consider the costs and benefits of each alternative before you make a decision.
5. Decide on a Justifiable Course of Action
You can draw on a number of resources as you weigh the alternative resolutions for an ethical dilemma:
- Your personal values and morality
- The Core Values and ethical guidance of your profession expressed in the Ideals and Principles of the Code
