Activity 11: Applied and Professional Ethics

Applied and Professional Ethics

Activity outline -

Create a blog post where you highlight key points from the article on Applied and Professional Ethics by Collste (2012) and discuss what you find relevant or applicable to your profession.

The first relevant point of Collste (2012) article -Applied and Professional Ethics is to describe the concept of applied ethics and Professional ethics -

Applied Ethics

Applied ethics is an academic discipline analysing moral problems in different social arenas. Applied ethics is often worked on in collaboration between philosophers and academics from other disciplines and with professionals who are affected by a moral problem. (Collste, 2012)

Professional Ethics- 

Professional ethics is, on the other hand, a response to moral problems facing professionals in their work or also later described as virtue ethics. (Collste, 2012)

Collste describes the following indicators of a professionalIndicators for a professional - 

1. Academic education, 
2. Importance of services provided, 
3. Professional degree, 
4. Professional association, 
5. Autonomy 
6. Ethical code or code of conduct. 

Some implications for Educators

As educators the implications for a morally ethical practice is based on adherence to the teachers council code of ethics and the registered teacher criteria. Even as a university students we are required to adhere to the graduating teacher criteria which is then scaffold-ed to the registered teacher criteria.

I have studied the origins of modern day ethics as described by Collste, such as Immanuel Kant, J.S Mills and other enlightenment theorists.  A key concept which Collste starts as being part of the professional body is "autonomy". The enlightenment theorists strongly believed in the individuals determination of what is moral and ethical for them, however Collste goes on to say that some decisions are not as autonomous in many professions.

Lastly Collste (2012) describes the practice of Reflective Equilibrium which I believe resonates in the effective use of the teaching as inquiry model, which is both utilitarian in its nature to balance beneficence and non-maleficence. The model or method for this reflection can describe in its application as teachers make moral and ethical decisions on a daily basis without even realizing it but when it comes to academic interventions than Teaching as Inquiry becomes an efficient and transparent process to use along with the code of ethics.

I believe that all teachers in New Zealand should be moral and ethical, however many are allowed to continue teaching even when they do not meet the stated professional criteria. Most notably are teachers who breach the code of ethics for misconduct but are left to continue harming students. Governing bodies like Board of trustees and senior leaders are often the key people that hold teachers accountable but often lack the authority to change the governments actions when it opposes the ethics of the school such as the examples shown in the media recently of lack of use of educational funds - which evidently is maleficence which as a result of not using the funds appropriately has caused harm. 

Stuff (2015)

References
New Zealand Teachers Council. (2004). Code of Ethics. Retrieved on 12 July 2015 from http://www.educationcouncil.org.nz/required/ethics/index.stm

Collste, G. (2012). Applied and Professional Ethics. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden in KEMANUSIAAN Vol. 19, No. 1, (2012), 17–33