How can we define Ethical Literacy Teaching?
Ethics will always remain as a highly debated notion that brings value across varied circumstances. Many school boards and private institutions have loosely defined ethics and have attempted to guide teachers in good decision making for their betterment of their students. Below is the Ontario College of Teachers' contribution.
“Legal ethicist Cornell (1992) has described that ethics, unlike morality, cannot be codified, but rather refers to the identification of what one kind of person one must become to develop a non violative relationship with the other" (as cited in Heydon et al, 2017 p. 195). It is the relationships between teachers and students (and communities, and peers, and administration...etc) that breeds ethical experiences that are respectful and honouring the beauty of learning and the perspectives that grow a critical mind.
It is curious to note that many teachers are not very familiar with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This treaty also adds another perspective to the careful and respectful teaching that should be happening in the classroom.
Articles #1-40 in the convention note the rights of the child. The articles below are of particular interest to education and classroom ethical practices.
Every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously. This right applies at all times, for example during immigration proceedings, housing decisions or the child’s day-to-day home life.
Article 12
(respect for the views of the child)
Every child must be free to express their thoughts and opinions and to access all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law.
Article 13
(freedom of expression)
Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.
Article 29
(goals of education)
Every child has the right to learn and use the language, customs and religion of their family, whether or not these are shared by the majority of the people in the country in which they live
Article 30
(children from minority or indigenous groups)
Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.
Article 31
(leisure, play and culture)
“...distance eliminates or reduces the moral impulse because it is easier to dismiss, discount, or discard people because they are out of sight”
We can draw from this perhaps that “...persons who are in direct contact with children (e.g.,classroom teachers and parents) are perhaps in the best position to make ethical curricular decisions.”
“Reciprocal, symmetrical relationships where both parties give and receive are humanizing relationships. Perceiving the other’s humanity helps one to respond ethically"
To enact reciprocal relationships in classroom means that teachers and students must be curricular informants”
“All members of an organization need to be seen in their ‘totality’ as ethical human beings and not just in terms of their “roles”.
Curricula should therefore support teachers and children to exercise their individual responsibilities to others”
(Heydon & Wang, 2006, p. 32)
(Kumar & Mitchel, 2004, p. 130)
(Heydon & Wang, 2006, p. 32)
(Heydon & Wang, 2006, p. 32)
(Kumar & Mitchel, 2004, p. 130)
(Kumar & Mitchel, 2004, p. 130)
The multiliteracies approach to learning and teaching seeks to value what students are bringing to the classroom in an ethical way. Whether it is home language, perspectives, ways of expression or open critiquing and questioning, students have a right to be heard and respected. Luke (2004) notes “new technologies and shifting fields of knowledge have real potential to disrupt and threaten longstanding teacher-student authority relations” (Attarian, Curdt-Christiansen & Lan, p. 1) . Moving from a place of 'teacher as the giver of information' to a place of active seeking of student opinion (showing integrity, trust, care and respect in the facilitating of such literary experiences and events across the curriculum) promotes an integral shift in authority relations. This is a positive shift that can often have strong roots in pedagogies that are multimodal and multicontextual.
“We need to think critically about the sort of social cohesion and the level or moral care for the self and others that may result from practices that allow little variety, individuality, or creativity and provide few opportunities for conversations of depth or the spontaneous pursuit of ideas that have infinite value to emerging minds.”
(Witte-Townsend & Hill, 2006, p. 377)
It is time to use the resources we have to promote a love of learning that extends beyond both the drill and skill, categorizing of students based on learning 'deficits' and scripted or mandated lessons.
Heydon and Wang (2006), draw connections between ethical management practices and classroom literacy opportunities, that are made relevant the changing social dynamic of teachers and students. Drawn from Kumar and Mitchell (2004), and their study of managerial tactics in an educational setting, Heydon and Wang note implications for the classroom. Proximity, Reciprocal Relationships and Totality can be connected to how curricula manifests in the classroom through the building of respectful and ethical relations between teachers and students.
It is no secret that educators hold great responsibility for their content and approach."Teachers and school administrators impact how young people make sense of themselves and their world, respond to others, and how to carry out their roles as citizens, employees, family members, and friends" (Vogel, 2012, p. 2). Taking care to consider if our approach in the classroom is indeed an ethical approach is essential for educators, administrators and stakeholders alike.
Kostogriz & Doecke (2013) note that it is "important to turn to situated approaches to ethics as a framework that enables us to questions what counts at literacy education in conditions of test-based accountability and, in turn, to think about the possibilities of opening up education to the other, to social and cultural differences, to the multiplicities of abilities and needs of students in schools" (p. 95). The "one-size-fits-all" approach can no longer be even remotely effective when we are teaching in a time where worldly influences are permeating nearly every moment of our day (whether we recognize this or not).
Consider how ethical your approach is in the classroom.
Ontario College of Teachers 2018