Professional ethics means the ethical aspect of professionalism, as Campbell (2003: 12) states:
“Professional ethics is the extension of everyday ethics into the nuances of the professional’s practices”. The aim of professional ethics is making sure that professional action lives up to the trust society has put on it, and at best can help professionals recognize professional problems and find solutions to them (Atjonen 2004: 43-44). Seghedin (2014: 20) divides professional ethics into two categories:
1. “Group professional ethics, which is developed in time, by acquisitions regarding the practice quality of each professional and of the professional community as a social group;
2. A personal professional ethics, which is formed on several levels of individual moral development given as evolution opportunities, carried on at the same time with the professional development steps;
represents one of the in-service teacher education purposes.”
The duality of the concept is also recognized by Lindqvist (1998: 15), who adds that the commitment to the group professional ethics is made on a joint agreement on a voluntary basis, and that on an individual level, the professional commits to his or her own ideals and principles, which functions as a basis for his or her personal professional behavior.
Examining professional ethics in the context of teaching brings about the term teacher ethics, which is the core concept of this study. It refers to the professional ethics of the specific group of teachers, and can be defined as follows:
“a set of beliefs that a teacher accepts concerning relationships with students, colleagues, employers and parents (or guardians and caregivers of children), all of whom are stakeholders in the life of a teacher”. (Fisher 2013: 299)
Oser (1999: 193) suggests that the components of teacher ethics are 1) “awareness of responsibility”, 2) “balancing of conflicting variables” and 3) “commitment to the act”, meaning that a teachers should be conscious of the status they pose, understand the conflicting nature of ethical dilemmas and fully commit to operating as a practitioner of the profession. Along similar lines, Atjonen (2004: 43) states that ethical thinking, commitment to the work and a teacher’s own moral personality are all essential parts of the profession, which means that the connection between expertise, knowledge and ethical responsibility is highlighted in a teacher’s professional ethics.
Therefore, a strong professionalism is embedded in the concept of teacher ethics; ethical teacher behavior requires good professional practice. A professional teacher should also aim at being and becoming conscious of their observations, interpretations, assumptions, emotions, objectives and actions to ensure ethically sustainable decision-making (Ahonen 2002: 66-68), which supports the fundamental aim of this study: raising teachers’ awareness of their own professional practice.
2.3.1 Pedagogical ethics
A concept closely related to teacher ethics used by Atjonen (2004: 17), pedagogical ethics, can also be raised here. This concept could be considered as the collective form of teacher ethics, and Atjonen (2004: 17) defines it as the questions of education, teaching and instruction concerning right and wrong, good and bad, as well as good and happy life and the decision-making and social norms related to it. That is, it concerns not only the individual teacher but the representatives of the profession and the field itself in general, and thus relates to the notion of group professional ethics described by Seghedin (2014: 20).
Pedagogical ethics can be described as the map and the compass of education (Atjonen 2004:
141), which seems to explain quite well on a concrete level why ethical considerations are
important in the teaching profession. In conflict situations, pedagogical ethics helps visualize the educational contents that the school and its people are built on; that is the map function. As for the compass function, when trying to solve these conflicts, pedagogical ethics can guide teachers in reflecting on e.g. the emotions the conflict raises in each party, why the issue cannot go unaddressed, whose justice is at play in the situation, and on whose terms should the solution be discussed.
In effect, the basic function of pedagogical or teacher ethics is to guide all conflict-solving through an ethical consideration. Thus, ethics is not just ideals to be pursued, but an actual framework for teachers to process everyday dilemmas in the school environment. In the everyday school life, ethical reflection as a skill and a professional action strategy should be learned and constructed constantly (Soini et al. 2014: 79). The key is interaction between the stakeholders, i.e. teachers, their students and peers, and at best it contributes to the construction of well-being in school. This is also mentioned in the ethical guidelines compiled by the Finnish Trade Union of Education (2018, see section 4.1). Also illustrating the concrete nature of teacher ethics, Campbell (2003: 9) points out that a teacher’s professional ethics is expressed in “the nuances of attitudes, intentions, words and actions of the professional teacher”. To conclude, this means that good ethical practice in educational contexts is created together with all the people involved in the school life, and profound interaction skills are necessary for a teacher to convey professional ethical expertise.
2.3.2 Ethical aspects in teachers’ work
The range of aspects where ethics is intrinsically present in a teacher’s work is wide, and e.g. Keith-Spiegel et al. (2002) have gathered case examples of these aspects. The cases are set in college education, so possibly not all these aspects are present in every education level or cultural context in a similar manner. Nevertheless, to concretize the appearance of ethical decision-making in teachers’ everyday work as methods and practices, I will briefly present the main aspects here.
First, the instructors’ classroom policies concerning e.g. discipline issues and excuse policies are of an ethical nature: how does a teacher justify his or her methods of keeping order in the classroom and how does he or she react to or act on different kinds of student behavior (Keith-Spiegel et al. 2002: 3)? Another notable aspect is the classroom learning experience and the question of the ethicality of the teacher’s behavior (Keith-Spiegel et al. 2002: 29).
Possible issues can include the use of inappropriate language, presenting sensitive materials, revealing personal issues, emotional outbursts, biased pedagogical content, political and public statements, discrimination etc.
Moreover, assessment is one major area that has to do with ethical considerations and where fairness is the common nominator (Keith-Spiegel et al. 2002: 61). The use of tests, grading methods and feedback policies and the way of dealing with cheating all have possible pitfalls for unethical conduct. Keith-Spiegel et al. (2002: 109) also note that every instructor is bound to face the dilemma of how to treat students in an unbiased way. In addition to these aspects, Keith-Spiegel et el. (2002) discuss ethical teacher behavior in terms of interacting with students outside of the school context, confidentiality and competency, and teachers’ responsibilities to students and colleagues. As the range of issues shows, almost all of teachers’ work seems to have an ethical undertone.