Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice
An ethical dilemma that is reasonably common in New Zealand, based on complaints made to the Teachers Council, now re-created as the Education Council, is teachers friending students on Facebook and therefore opening up their private and social life to the community that they work in. We had a discussion about this recently in a staff meeting and a wide range of points of view were expressed. One of the questions we ask to help decide what to do is to take the ‘digital’ out of it and look at the actions if they happened in a public place. Would that be OK? The question in this case is would students be part of teacher’s private or social life? There will be situations where this is the case, for example teaching students of families that you already have friendships with or teaching members of your own family. The teacher will need to make the boundaries between school and outside school very clear to all concerned. Our school works to reduce this issue by giving teachers the chance to check their class to see if there are any students they already know. This is not possible in smaller schools where there is only a small number of classes. Returning to the original issue of “Should teachers friend students on Facebook?” our school has taken the stance that teachers should not ‘friend’ students. There may be situations where it is OK but for the sake of clarity and to reduce the risk to the teacher and the school’s reputation, that is the way it is at present.
I was involved in setting up the Teachers and Social Media web site which was coordinated by the Teachers Council. Although teacher ethics are being reviewed and the new version will not be available until June 2017, I think that the advice on this web site is still relevant and appropriate. Teachers are encouraged to think about their ethical dilemma in terms of the Code of Ethics. The one that is appropriate is in this situation is “Commitment to learners”. Teachers have an obligation to develop and maintain professional relationships with learners based on the best interests of the learner. The web site provides advice such as: “Before having one-on-one conversations using social media, consider ethical risks that could arise. Act the same way when using social media, as you would in a face to face setting.” This is sound advice and can be applied in many situations.
Our school is set within a large community and so many of the teachers would not be recognised by members of the school community unless they taught their children. This is not the case in a small community where everyone knows who the teachers are! There is no doubt that teachers are expected by the community to maintain high standards of behaviour. It is in the interests of every teacher to consider their professional ethics when planning and carrying out their digital practice.
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The distinction between personal and public life can be very blurred at times especially when we are interacting with students outside of the school environment i.e sports teams. It is easier now that Facebook and Messenger allow for groups to be set up and joined without having to be 'friends'. Acting in the same way on social media as you would face to face is very good advice.
ReplyDeleteI agree.... I enjoyed reading your post and lots of food for thought - it's the same thinking of - do you friend children's parents, especially if you are friends with them in 'real life' but then that can pop up on someone elses page who you are not friends with but your friend is.... complicated thoughts really. We also had the instance when all my children got their gmail accounts - I was emailed at any time, which is great for sharing work but I had to educate the class that I would not be responding all the time as I needed to create the difference form school and home life.
ReplyDeleteI also looked at the new code of conduct but from the point of view of a teacher who wasn't friends with students, yet their posts were able to be 'found' and discussed. For the sake of this argument, consider the posts to be rather benign and indeed the teachers whole Facebook page is totally unrelated to work. The fact they're able to be scrutinised by students/parents raises the question therefore, when does a teachers obligation to their work end, and their private life begin?
ReplyDeleteLots to think about before July 2017! :)
Hi, thanks for your thoughts. I think, as does the Teachers Council, that as a teacher we are expected to have a high moral code. I think that people in the community who don't know you as a person will judge you as a teacher. In that situation your 'work life' never ends, similar for many other professions. I know that teachers at our school choose to have our school functions at private venues so that teachers can relax and not worry about being scrutinised. Is it fair to be open to public scrutiny? I guess that we have to take that on when we become teachers. Keeping your private life, private is a challenge!
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