Hi Leadership Prof,

Thank you for your comments and questions regarding ethical standards and monitoring in the teaching profession.

www.oct.ca

When I attended teacher’s college in Ontario, each course that I took reinforced the importance of teachers having integrity and maintaining the standards of the profession. We were taught to adhere to the four ethical standards for the teaching profession as prepared by the Ontario College of Teachers which are care, respect, integrity and trust. More information on these standards can be found at this link

The British Columbia Teachers Federation also has a code of Ethics for teachers. If any of the following ethical items are breached or in question, there are steps and procedures outlined in the members guide.

www.bctf.ca

When teachers are hired by the school district, both the teachers’ union and the school district work closely to ensure that teachers are aware of the ethical standards and the potential consequences of behaviour that goes those standards. New teachers attend workshops and are paired with a mentor. Teachers do not receive a yearly evaluation on these standards. A teacher is expected to follow these standards whether school is in session or not. If an issue arises, there are steps and protocol in place for administrators, teachers, the union and the district to follow.

Some school administrators discuss some of these ethical standards at the first staff meeting of the year, (especially if there is a large number of new teachers on staff) but generally, it is expected that teachers are already familiar with them.

If leaders do not possess moral or ethical values, the implications of their behaviour would have a profound negative affect on the entire membership of their organizations as well as those that they  are supposed to serve.  Donald Trump and his continual spate of lies and false accusations comes to mind as an example. His lack of transparency and what appears to be a complete absence of basic moral or ethical values not only affects the entire United States but also relationships with other nations as witnessed by his latest behaviour on the world wide stage at the recent G7 Summit.

Reuters.com

The implications of Trump’s behaviour are far reaching and do a great disservice not just for his country but for humanity as a whole.  There are many examples in history of unethical and immoral leaders and of the devastating and far reaching impact they had not just on their own people but on the entire world.

Both  Aviolio and Gardner (2005) in their article “Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership” and Jane Van Buren in the video “What is Ethical Leadership” (March 29, 2013) touch upon the importance of leaders demonstrating transparency of their values in their communication as well as their actions.  When leaders uphold the shared values of an organization they help to set the cultural tone and model expectations of shared behaviour. Aviolio and Gardner(2005) reference Avolio, Luthans, and Walumbwa (2004, p.4) when they define authentic leaders as “those who are deeply aware of how they think and behave and are perceived by others as being aware of their own and others’ values/moral perspectives, knowledge, and strengths; aware of the context in which they operate; and who are confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, and of high moral character” (Aviolio and Gardner, 2005, p. 321).   Aviolio and Gardner (2005) also refer to the importance of leaders being able to self-regulate and “align their values with their intentions and actions” (p. 325).   Self-regulation is the ability of a leader to act/behave in the long term, best interest of the organization while maintaining and adhering to a consistent set of values. When leaders positively model self-regulation, and adhere to a set of values they have a more authentic influence over their followers.

I can help my organization grow and flourish by adhering to the following goals :

• Be a visible role model 
  • Just like the example in the video, when leaders wash their own cups, actions are shown to speak louder than words.  People see this action and are more likely to follow suit. I can ensure that I am acting and modelling the kind of leadership behaviours that would be in the best interest of students. For example, the simple act (like the cup washing) of standing at my door each morning and greeting students by name and making them feel welcome.
  • I can be a visible role model not just within my school but also my community. Teachers are never really off duty and often run into students and families during weekends and holidays. I need to ensure that my behaviour is always becoming my profession and the ethical and moral values that I stand for.
• Communicate ethical expectations & institutionalize an ethical culture
  • In our department meetings and in the classroom, we can discuss our values and what our ethical expectations are as a department team (and whole school) so that we can hold ourselves accountable individually and as a team. It is important for everyone to be aware of these expectations so that everyone has a shared goal and vision of the kind of school culture that we want to build together.
  • Continue to share our values and school mission statement with all staff, students and parents across the entire district.
  • When our values and expectations are shared and displayed in classrooms and around the school, there is less room for misunderstandings or miscommunication.
• Be Transparent
  • Just like it’s mentioned in the video, I need to continually ask… “Is it fair? Is it honest? Is this in the best interests of students? How would I feel if this ended up on the evening news?”
  • Consistently provide access to information, resources, support and equal opportunities  for all students, parents and staff members
  • Be honest, open and respectful in my relationships and dealings with all members of my school and community.
• Self Regulate
  • I would like to actively practice self-regulation and be more aware of my emotions, my physical responses and my social responsibilities so that I can ensure that I am able make sustainable decisions that have the best interests of students at heart.
• Learn more about ethical training & how the profession provides protective mechanisms to maintain ethical behaviour
  • For example, the Teachers’ Association adheres to strong ethics in the teaching profession and provides training sessions for new teachers. Reminders are also sent out to all teachers on a regular basis of the necessity to maintain the ethical standards of the profession. If a teacher is in need of more than a reminder, there are steps and procedures in place to ensure additional training is provided or in severe cases, teachers can lose their professional license.  It is important to maintain the integrity of the profession and therefore ethical behaviour is held to high esteem.  How can I help model this and be a mentor to new teachers in the profession?
  • Training courses are also available for new administrators in our school district on the ethical and moral expectations of Vice-Principals and Principals.  One such document outlining the expectations is the BCPVPA Leadership Standards for Principals and Vice-Principals in British Columbia (2016). I would like to familiarize myself more with these standards.

I would like to be a leader and a role model who consciously self-regulates and who models transparent ethical morals and values on a daily basis through both my words and my actions.  I want to be aware of my actions and the affect my choices have on the greater good of our school community and those that I am supposed to serve.

References:

Aviolio, B, Gardner W. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 315-338.

BCPVPA Standards Committee. (2016). Leadership Standards for Principals and Vice-Principals in British Columbia. Retrieved from  http://www.bcpvpa.bc.ca/downloads/pdf/Standardsfinal.pdf

Van Buren, J. (2013, March 29). What is Ethical Leadership? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks2QGoIq5nA

There has been a lot of discussion in the past few years regarding the promotion and development of a people-technology hybrid model for education.  It is an exciting time as the possibilities are endless and also a challenging time due to budget, resource and support limitations that vary according to schools and school districts.

Technology can be used in education to promote organizational citizenship behaviour. Each year, our school district has all students in Grades 4, 7, 10 and 12 as well as staff take an anonymous online Satisfaction Survey. It is a province wide customer satisfaction type questionnaire that was developed to help meet the needs of students, staff and parents.  A link to the types of questions asked can be found here on the BC Ministry of Education website. There is also an online survey that students complete each year entitled Tell Them From Me. This anonymous survey is conducted in grades 8-12 and collects information that individual schools can then use to determine better ways to teach and reach kids based on the input collected. It enables student voices to be heard and focuses on the assessment of intellectual, social, emotional learning of students.  Here is a video link explaining how the results from Tell Them From Me can be immediately applicable. The goal is to recognize and acknowledge the needs of students and to make changes that will enable students to be more engaged in their learning which in turn leads to a higher rate of high school completion.  These types of surveys are extremely eye-opening and enable self-reflection to take place. For example, last year, we discovered that there were a high majority of Grade 8 students who felt that they didn’t have an adult in the building that they could turn to for help. We made it our mission to put initiatives in place that would ensure that each student had a special connection to at least one adult.  The difficulty with these types of surveys are that not every school has access to technology that would allow for students to complete them during school time (which is how they are conducted).  At my school alone, we have over 1200 students and only 120 laptops available at a time so it makes it rather difficult to smoothly coordinate this whole school initiative while balancing  teaching schedules and blocks.  Another pressing issue, is the lack of consistent WiFi service in  schools as well. When large groups of people are on at one time, the service usually crashes or becomes significantly slower resulting in frustration from both the teachers and the students.

We had an initiative in our District a few years ago, where there were Digital Literacy coaches available in each school to help mentor other teachers in the application of technology within the classroom to help co-create lessons that would inspire wonder and innovation in our students beyond paper/pencil tasks.  I was one of those coaches and worked out of the School Board Office helping to promote digital literacy through whole school and small group workshops as well as one on one sessions.  We needed ways to help keep parents informed and ways for students to be able to access learning materials outside of class time. I helped teachers create their own websites, create flipped classrooms (where the  lesson is taught online and the work done in the classroom) and find innovative ways to share  student learning through programs like KidBlog or FreshGrade (a learning portfolio platform accessible by students, teachers and parents).  As digital literacy coaches, we wanted to avoid teachers simply replacing paper tasks with digital ones that basically did the same thing. Our goal was to help teachers move beyond the basics and find new ways for students to share their individual unique learning and focus on student strengths. We referred to the SAMR model developed by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura frequently as a way to help explain how to create a hybrid model of technology and education for teachers.  Here is a link to a great video clip explaining the model and how it applies to the classroom.  Basically there are 4 levels as illustrated below with the first being simply a substitute activity leading all the way to an activity that would have originally been impossible to do without technology.  For example, the first two levels of the SAMR model enhance teaching but the final level transforms it and enables students to collaborate beyond the 4 walls of the classroom and have access to a global community for feedback and self-reflection.

www.marsscott.com

Our District has moved away from having Digital Literacy Coaches within schools to having two technology support mentors who work with teachers who are interested in providing opportunities for students to learn coding and robotics within the classroom.  Teachers can apply for grants each year to receive iPads, GoPros, mini robots and other tech gadgets.  Teachers are also supplied with one tech device for themselves to use within the classroom (an iPad or a laptop) and each teacher was asked this year to define their teaching style and how they use the device provided to support student learning.

Some ways in which my school district  provides innovation in a Service Oriented Culture is by offering Microsoft Office for free to all of our students.  Students can upload this program on up to 6 different personal devices and it will still be accessible to them after they graduate. We used to use Google Classroom to enable students to collaborate online, however, due to Google servers being located in places other than Canada, we wanted to ensure that our students privacy was protected under Canadian laws and switched to Microsoft Office.  By providing students with free access to Microsoft Office, student learning can take place both inside and outside school hours and on personal devices that are convenient for students to use. We used Microsoft Office forms  at our school this year with our Grade 9’s to conduct student surveys to better improve courses like Career Education that have recently become embedded and to promote student engagement in their learning. We also use it to create quick surveys for staff that allow for immediate responses. We also use apps like Remind to keep parents and students informed of upcoming events and assignments for individual classes. We utilize social media such as Instagram to post whole school messages that will make it more likely for high school students to see. Teachers can access lesson ideas and build their professional learning community through forums such as Pinterest, Twitter and Teachers Pay Teachers. Teachers and students are able to access and bring experts/mentors from the local and global communities into the classroom through programs like Skype. Virtual reality programs enable students to build and develop their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) skills.  Fun and engaging programs like Kahoot help enhance student learning and enable teachers to reflect on areas that need further work. Students can create and share their learning globally through student made podcasts, videos and blogs. Collaboration is no longer confined to the four walls of a classroom or building. Students can work together on the same document at the same time and provide peer feedback in real time.  We are currently using a program called MyBlueprint to enable students to create portfolios and collect artifacts of their learning that can be shared with Universities and parents.  This program ties into their highschool courses, provides transcripts, enables them to complete surveys that help them better understand their strengths and provides possible career suggestions.

Technology when used to promote student engagement, to assess emotional, social and intelligence needs of students and used to transform learning that goes beyond the four walls of the classroom is a very useful tool indeed.

References:

Government of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-12/surveys/satisfaction-survey

Kandampully, J., Bilghihan, A., Tingting, C. (2016). Developing a People-Technology Hybrids Model to Unleash Innovation and Creativity: The New Hospitality Frontier.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2016.07.003

Northouse, P.G. (2019).  Leadership: Theory and Practice.  (8^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, Inc.

Scott, M. (2016, May 23). A Glimpse Into Technology Coaching. Retrieved from http://marsscott.com/visionaryleadership/a-glimpse-into-technology-coaching/

I have had the opportunity to both be an adult learner and to work with adult learners. As someone who has worked with elementary, middle and high school students, I am extremely confident in stating that working with adults is a whole different world!   Libra Boyd (2015) in her review of Merriam and Bierema’s (2004) book Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice  shares that for the most part, children’s daily lives are filled with learning, whereas adults have to balance family, work, school and other social obligations. Unlike young children, adults are able to make deeper connections to their learning because they have a larger database of life experiences to draw upon.  For the focus of this post, I am going to address my own experience as an adult learner rather than as an adult teacher.

Malcolm Knowles as referenced in our Unit 6 notes discusses 6 principle assumptions about Andragogy (the art and science of helping adults learn).

https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/03/andragogy-visually-explained-for-teachers.html

1. As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being. 
   • The older I get, the less dependent I am upon others for validation of my identity or my thoughts/ideas. I used to place a tremendous emphasis on how I fit into the social hierarchy of my school/work/personal life and tied my identity to that role. I now care more about acting with integrity and being true to myself and my values than I am about fitting in to a role/mold that I think others want me to be. I am focused more on discovering who I am as a person so that I can become the best me possible. If I can figure this out, then I will have more to offer to others. In the past I wouldn’t question or rock the boat, and now I do not prescribe to a group mentality and am proud of having a voice to call my own. I like to form my own opinions and don’t take what other people have to say as ‘gospel’ especially when they are talking about other students or adults in the building. This definitely has only come about in the past 5 years or so as I have matured into myself.
2. An adult accumulates a growing reservoir of experience, which is a rich resource for learning.
   • This is definitely true! I appreciate every experience that I’ve had (the good, the bad, the ugly) because they have helped shape me into who I am today. When facing difficult decisions, I know that I have a toolbox full of skills and experience to draw upon to not only help myself but to help others and benefit my learning community.  Adults are able to make deeper connections to their learning because they have a larger database of life experiences from which to draw upon. By sharing these experiences we learn from each other.
3. The readiness of an adult to learn is closely related to the developmental tasks of his/her social role. 
   • My life circumstances have forced me to take charge of my own future.  I have never been more ready to learn! I know what I want in life and I’m going to do whatever it takes to seek it out and make it a reality.
4. There is a change in time perspective as people mature – from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Thus, an adult is more problem than subject centred in learning.
   • Unlike when I was in high school I now take what I learn and apply it immediately to my life, and to my career. The material being taught is no longer something that seems far off in the future, instead it is right now, in the present. My learning is relevant and job related and therefore immediately applicable.
5. Adults are mostly driven by internal motivation, rather than external motivators.
   

   Adult Learning Styles – YouTube

   • While I cannot speak for others, this is definitely true for me.  I went back to school in 2008 as a mature student and got my teaching degree after being a stay at home mom for 10 years because it had always been my dream to become a teacher. I didn’t do it for the money, I didn’t do it for social status,  I did it for me. I signed up for this Master’s course because I want to continue to challenge myself by soaking up as much knowledge as I can so that I can become a better me.  I do it because I am intrinsically driven to do it. Unlike in high school or during my first Bachelor of Arts Degree (I left home and went away to University when I was 17), I am driven to do the best that I can instead of just producing the bare minimum to get by.  I know that whatever I put into my learning is what I will get out of it.  I am intrinsically driven to be an adult learner because I want to be the best me possible.
6. Adults need to know the reason for learning something. (Merriam & Bierma, 2014, p. 47)
   • According to Donnelly-Smith (2011) in the article “What Adult Learners Can Teach Us About All Learners: A Conversation with L. Lee Knefelkamp”, they state that, “learning is meaningful to the degree that we can connect it to the concrete experiences of our student’s lives.”  As an adult learner, I need to be able to connect what I am learning to my own life. There needs to be a direct correlation in order for it to be meaningful and for me to want to be motivated to learn it.
   • According to Boyd (2015),  Merriam and Bierema (2004, p. 106) in Chapter Six of their book Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice discuss the need for “reflective practice, situated cognition and communities of practice” in adult education. By reflecting on our own practice, building and sharing our professional learning networks with others, by reading and commenting on each other’s blog posts and by expanding our cognitive knowledge through our assigned readings and essays we are slowly transforming ourselves into the leaders that we wish to be.

Adult learners take on an active role in their learning and seek out opportunities to add and develop skills to build up their toolboxes.  A team like relationship begins to develop between the learners, their educational peers as well as their professors. It is mutually beneficial for everyone involved to share their knowledge, and mistakes so that all of us can learn from them. Our notes from Unit 6, sums this up “we must willingly seek input and collaboration with stakeholders” as  “our personal growth and transformation impact others”.  I have learned so much already from reading the blog posts of my peers in this course. I have gained insight and perspective that I might not otherwise have been exposed to. I am grateful for this experience.  Our Unit 6 notes also mention about the presence of  “wisdom often being in the room” with us and I have definitely found this to be so. As a mature student, I want to continue on my journey of  choosing to learn and choosing to participate because I want to, and not because I have to.

References: 

Boyd, L. N. (2015). Adult learning: Linking Theory and Practice, by Sharan B. Merriam and Laura L. Bierema. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014. 320 pages, $50.00 (hardcover). New Horizons In Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27(4), 66. don:10.1002/nha3.20125

Dewey, J. (1944). Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press.

Donnelly-Smith, L. (2011). What Adult Learners Can Teach Us About All Learners: A Conversation with L. Lee Knefelkamp. Peer Review, 13(1), 8-9.

Hui, C.,Snider L., & Couture, M. (2016). Self-reguluation workshop and occupational performance coaching with teachers: A pilot study. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 83(2), 115-125. don:10.1177/0008417415627665

Katz J., & Sugden, R. (2013). The Three-Block Meodel of Universal Design for Learning Implementation in a High School. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 141, 1-28.

Klinger, D.A., Voluante, L., & DeLuca, C. (2012). Building teacher capacity within the evolving assessment culture in Canadian education. Policy Futures in Education, 10(4), 447-460. don:10.2304/pfie.2012.10.4.447

Merriam, S.B., & Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult Learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Merriam, S.B., & Grace,  A.P. (2011). Contemporary Issues in Adult Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sokal, L., & Sharma, U. (2014). Canadian in-service teachers’ concerns, efficacy, and attitudes about inclusive teaching. Exceptionality Education International, 23(1), 59-71.

A response to Charlie Mable’s blog post entitled “See, Listen, Reflect” Link to Blog Post:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post and especially loved your question and comment about listening and empathy.

How can there be empathy without first actively listening with understanding? The adage comes up that we have one mouth and two ears and should spend twice as much time listening as speaking.

You didn’t just say listening, (which is a verb itself) but you added the word “actively” to define even further that leaders need to intentionally listen to others in order to understand. The other day, I was chatting with someone about a particularly moving and sad story and at one point they accidentally responded “cool”.  They quickly realized that the response of “cool” didn’t come remotely close to being applicable and they apologized for not really listening and being distracted. We laughed about it and moved on. However, if I had been a student, sharing something deeply personal, this interaction might have caused me to never want to share again. It was a good reminder to this individual and to myself, the need to put our phones down, to ignore the dings of our email and to focus intentionally and listen actively.   How many times have we missed something important due to a lack of actively and intentionally listening? How many opportunities to connect were lost because we were too focused on ourselves?

You raised another great question at the bottom of your post:

Do you agree that having a reflective practice increases and is important for awareness?

Yes, I completely 100% agree that having a reflective practice is important in order to become more aware.  When things go wrong especially, it is often easy to find excuses or become defensive. However, I truly believe that we grow the most by being reflective and thinking about how we can improve things for next time. It’s not about beating ourselves up over something, but rather acknowledging the good, the bad and the ugly and learning from them so that we can add these experiences to our tool kit.  We will have a much better perspective and the foresight on how to do things differently/better when similar situations crop up again.

Thank you for stimulating some reflection of my own after reading your post!