Law & Ethics in Practice

Week 28 - Mindlab reflection: Law & Ethics in Practice

My post this week analyses an ethical dilemma in my teaching practice. To analyse this dilemma I have used Rolfe's (2001) model of reflection and Erlich et. al's. (2011) ethical decision making model.

Step 1 (What): While viewing the school's Facebook page I notice a number of pictures of groups of children involved in a whole school activity day. In many of the pictures I see a child from my class whose parents have expressly asked the school that their child's picture not be posted on any school social media platform - including Facebook and Seesaw. I was not the teacher that posted the pictures.

Step 2 (So what): 

Using Erlich et.al. (2011) ethical decision making model, I was able to see a need to consider  professional ethics and legal issues/policies in this dilemma. Consideration of professional ethics led me to search what the education code regarding my professional responsibility had to say. 
My professional responsibility is to

• demonstrate a high standard of professional behaviour and integrity
• engage in professional, respectful and collaborative relationships with colleagues
• promote the wellbeing of learners and protect them from harm
• engage in relationships with families and whānau that are professional and respectful

My understanding of the education code means I am unable to ignore the fact I know the child's pictures are on Facebook and need to make some choices as to what to do about it because...

• I have a responsibility to the child to ensure she is protected from harm and as I have no knowledge of the reasons why the parents of the child do not want her picture on social media, I have to consider there may be issues around her safety. 
• It is my role to behave with professionalism and integrity - I know I have to speak to the person who posted the pictures but should I inform the parents?
• Her parents finding out their child's picture is on Facebook may cause a breach in our professional relationship. The parents may feel I have not respected their wishes and there may be future trust issues. 
• In a professional and respectful way I need to inform my colleague that something will need to be done about the pictures and work out a way to ensure future pictures are not posted on Facebook.

Step 3 (Now what):

 To address the dilemma, I could...

• ensure policies and procedures around posting children's images on social media are current and all staff are clear about them.
• ensure staff know which children do not have permission for their images to be posted and where to find this information if they are unsure.
• speak to the person who posted the pictures and ask that they be removed.
• speak to the parents, alerting them to what has happened and informing them of the steps that have been taken to remedy the situation and ensure it doesn't happen again.

REFERENCES

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards. Retrieved 11th March, 2018 from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical Reflection Model. Retrieved from: https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveModelRolfe.pdf