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Ethical Decision Making - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Using the example of the high-school student that was suspended due to the length of his hair, we can see the different frameworks in play. The school’s framework was that all students had to comply with the school’s rules – that it is always wrong to break rules. On the other hand, the judge ruled that it is important to weigh up the harm of the punishment against the behaviour, so the judge overturned the suspension because the cost of missing out on education was not warranted (Muir, 2014 as cited in O’Neill, 2019).
      - So, what should we do when there is a misalignment in normative frameworks? Obviously, we need to have some sort of framework that is used throughout the education context, but the issue with this (a code of conduct) is that it does not cater for the complex issues that arise. For example, “when is a personal adornment a taonga as opposed to jewellery?” (O’Neill, 2019, p.280).
      - A code of conduct needs to be so clear, straightforward, and applicable to situations that there is no room for interpretation or so abstract that encourages interpretation. If a code of conduct allows room for interpretation, then what happens when a teacher genuinely thinks they were acting accordingly to the code? Could they be punished if others thought what they did not align with the code?
- - - - Gives teachers the language so that they can make sense of the dilemma
      - Principles: uses concepts like “respecting persons, avoiding harm, promoting good and treating people fairly” (O’Neill, 2019, p.281). It helps identify what the actual ethical issues are in conflict. For example, the conflict might be between promoting good or preventing harm.
      - Rules: asks teachers if there is a decision they need to make regardless of the consequences for the students, or emotional difficulty for the teacher. For example, is there a policy that requires you to report something even though you think it will harm a student? The example they use is a student asks a health teacher to take them to get an abortion as their parents have conservative religious beliefs. It also asks teachers to consider if they have to follow policies/rules regardless of the consequences or if they believe that there are exceptions to the rule.
      - Both rules and principles are not about telling the teacher what to do, but it is a systematic way for their decision making. It helps gain insight but is not a set way to guide actions because principles are very abstract whereas rules do not consider the antecedents or consequences, nor does it have space for a teacher’s discretion. They apply the general ideas to a specific situation
    - - Reflect on the type of person you are aiming to become and if it aligns with the values of the groups you a part of (group here refers to the various social groups we identify with, e.g., teaching, students, and then more specific ones). This approach allows “space for subjective intuition, narrative, memory and emotion in ethical considerations and judgements” (O’Neill, 2019, p.282). This approach is about learning to maintain your personal ideal ethical self while being aware of how the structures around you affect your ethical behaviour.
      - Focusses on your social experiences that you bring to the situation and gives the space to explore who they want to be as educators as well as moral agents.
    - - A focus on the human condition which includes the core question: what is the purpose of education?
      - By examining your beliefs, it allows you to see that they are based on subjective, not objective, truths. It is important we do this because our beliefs will influence the stance we take when it comes to ethical dilemmas. It involves looking at the origin of your beliefs, when and what beliefs outweigh others and your evidence to justify these beliefs.