Case Study 1: My reflections on Reader 5 began with the notion of who is effected by Ethics? Personal, professional, organisational or societal? I turned to my journal, "It seems that we are all touched by ethics, we can't get away from it". The idea of morality, good and bad is ever present in the world and ethical principles change shape with the very angle they are perceived from. With regards to where the limits of responsibility lie, I want to say personal. Isn't that where we all start, with ourselves? We have to take responsibility for what we do, it's us as individuals that make up a profession, organisation and society. After breaking down these ethical principles you are left with the individual, making me feel that the responsibility is with the person. Of course there are overlaps, society can shape the very person you become, culture and religion play a big hand in this. It is inevitable that there would be a cross over with the contexts in which the ethics operates (Appendix 1), but also what I may see as an overlap, might be fully within the ethical context of another culture, it's all relative to time and geography. Of course this notion of time and culture, then delivers an issue of tension. The idea of good and bad within any context, usually brings about a level of tension as ideas conflict and the ever changing world of ethics under goes a developmental change. Change is never smooth and sometimes brings a period of tension. It's how a society, organisation, profession and person deals with the changes. Is it about acceptance that ethics are always moving and we as people should be on the leading edge of this. Is it in understudying that things or ideas never stay the same that a resolution to such tension can be found.
Reader 5 then brings me back to the history of ethics, deriving from the Greek word Ethos, the next section surprised me a little. So much so I stopped and had to call Paula Nottingham. I was put off by the Greek philosophy, I was being closed minded and couldn't see beyond what I wanted to learn. It was agreed that it was important to go back to where these ethics that I will be adhering to in my inquiry actually come from. Wobble over, I was back to the reader. Aristotle seems to be an important voice for the idea of ethics. I say this because, not only does Reader 5 point him out, but actually having had two conversations with fellow practitioners about ethics, his name has popped up twice. I took this as a good indication that he was worth a closer look. Focusing on peoples characters he looked at what makes good virtues within a person and that it is, "manifested in habitual action" (Reader 5, 2012).
List of my Virtues: List of my Professional Virtues:
Kind Hard Working
Generous Thorough
Considerate Brave
Funny Creative
Sensitive Inquisitive
Case Study 2: This was a powerful point in Reader 5 and it was here that the 'penny dropped' and I, the practitioner was able to why I was here reading this Reader. Looking at the case form a Consequentialist, Dentologist and Virtue Ethicist approach enabled me to question the issues of morality within the case. Consequentially speaking, my initial reaction to the case study was one that would have abandoned all professional ethics and helped the girl. I identified with the fact that as a teacher, I'm working with people and professionalism can become a grey area. People connect and as we saw at the end of the story, guilt plays a big hand when it comes to morals. For the greater good, rules can be broken. But can they? Deontology comes from the angle, that ethics are rules and that is that. If you go against the rules, you have broken the ethical code of conduct and that is interpreted as wrong. No matter how bad the girl looked, he was right to have left her to die, the responsibility was not with him. However, his suicide could argue this. I wonder would he have ended his life, had the photograph not done so well? A Virtual Ethicist approach moves the focus less on the action of leaving the girl to die, but more the character of the person behind the decision of such action. How could someone even decide that as the right action? Was this the question that drove Kevin Carter to suicide. I make an important realisation. I am not going to just look at these case studies and find the answer of what is the resolution to ethical issues. I learn that Ethics is a complex area within my inquiry, that needs delicate and careful consideration. Such a complex idea can not be solved, rather it can be explored.
Professional Ethics - Glancing back to Greek philosophy Reader 5 talks about attributes and links it to the idea of professional ethics. Connecting the notion of 'good society' to professional codes of conduct I consider what I believe to be my attributes as a professional...
Artist... Creative
Teacher... Informative
Messenger... Communicative
I measure this as successful attributes, as a drama teacher I am responsible for bring the creativity of the theatre arts into the classroom. This notion of bringing the theatre arts, leads me on to informing students of something they don't know. In doing this successfully I would need to communicate with energy and passion. These attribute make for a fit drama teacher if ever i saw one.
Case Study 3: This is a tough one and I could feel myself getting anxious when reading this particular case study. My first ethical issue is that do the people know that there name and teaching methods are being spoken about in this way? I couldn't help but create a negative tone whilst reading the quotations of what they were saying. is there a question of confidentiality here? However, the larger ethical issue is that yes, is the teacher preparing a student for the real world? He could take her to one side and softly explain why what she is doing needs criticism, but is this helping her in the long run? I guess if the student agrees that she wants the criticism first, then she has the choice of what she is hearing and then how she is effected by it after is her responsibility. Choice could suggest the feeling of freedom.
Case Study of Plagarism: I believe a researcher should hold an open minded character. Creating a comfortable platform to allow what arises within the research to come up with out being subject to manipulation or the disrespect to the people being observed. The Spanish team in this case study displayed the opposite. They were close minded and were already focused on what the result of the research was before their research was ready for analysis. In finding results that served the point they wanted, they passed the data off as they're own in order to get from A to B. This again supports the idea that research isn't necessarily about finding an answer or getting from A to B. It's about gaining a wider knowledge about a particular area of interest, an exploration more than a finding.
Looking at my inquiry, I think the issues I will need to look at is confidentiality. I am looking at speaking to teachers, I need to respect their promise of code of conduct. Working with children will no doubt be restricting and I will need to adhere to there confidentiality needs for both moral reasons and for the good of the reputation with my networks. I would need to be careful, that the research has the right balance of informal enough to be formal. I don't want to scare people away, these are my affiliations after all. So there needs to be a 'serious fun' approach to my inquiry. I am keen to liaise with my SIG on this matter as I am sure they're will be many more ethical issues I will encounter upon planning my inquiry.
Case Study of Presenting Findings: This actually made me laugh. The case study gives an example of someone who presents their findings in such a personal way, it's impossible to take it seriously. There is a sense of preempted results with the terminology. This affirms my learning that the way you ask questions is everything. Terminology is an important aspect of our research. It needs to be neutral and non-bias. The professional voice here needs to present the results merely as they are, not using any language that implies an attitude toward what the findings are and no personal views on the people being observed. A professional voice speaks from the point of evidence and finding only, not from preference. The usage of the words 'Blacks', 'Old dears' and 'tramps' are derogatory and in order for ones research to be taken seriously, one should adopt a neural, editorial tone.
Further Reading: In a bid to statisfy my critical curiosity. I wanted to look at ethics close to my practice. Upon my search I came across Rosemary Mcguiness's SIG References. Here I found an article that spotlighted the ethics within my area of practice. Lazuras, J (2004) opens the article with a scenario that sounds familiar to me. She talks about the thetare arts being a subject the enables the teacher to connect with students in and out of the classroom, be it in the wings of a stage or on a thetare trip. The subject's creativity and relationship with a students personal development, can lead to a difference in educational relationship. Lazuras then advises that, "drawing boundies for students shows respect for them and is part of our responsibility as teachers" (Lazauras, J. 2004). Lauzarus then highlights ethical issues vitally important to my inquiry,
Directors of secondary school theatre must be both artists and teachers
and must understand theatre pedagogy as well as theatre artistry... and
theatre educators can work together to adopt ethical standards for the
field. Each community, school, class, and each student within each class
are constantly changing. So must our response to the issues and concerns
that we face in classroom and production work. Being a professional
theatre educator means standing firm about ethical issues while remaining
responsive to the ever-changing needs of the children whom we are
shepherding toward adulthood. In theatre, there could not be a more important
calling (Lazauras, J. 2004).
Helping me gain a greater understanding of the complexity of the topic of ethics, I can now take this broad notion of professional ethics and consider approaches to my inquiry and look further into my work, to see what do I know or need to learn about the the professional ethics within my practice.
I call all SIG members to enter into discussion with me. Let's help each other explore the ethical issue we might encounter within our individual inquiry. Let's talk...
Bibliography
Reader 5, BAPP, Reader 5: Professional Ethics. [online] Available from: http://lgdata.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/docs/566/501690/BAPP_Reader_5_2012-13.pdf (last accessed 26th October 2012).
Lazarus, J. 2004. Joan Lazarus teaches theatre education at the University of Texas at Austin Talking about her Ethical Questions in Secondary Theatre Education Arts Education Policy Review. [online] Available from: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:iipa:&rft_dat=xri:iipa:article:fulltext:iipa00575292 (last accessed 25th October 2012).
Appendices
Appendix 1:
Taken from Reader 5, Middlesex University.
Interesting review of the ethics reading in Reader 5 - a lot there - but you are also concentrating on what makes sense to your inquiry - there is a different tone to this one - it is one of those areas that create a backbone to practice - I like how Fox put ethical practice in Doing Practitioner Research by Fox, Martin, and Green (2007) - it is one of the Dawson era ebooks that the university has. Fox et al see ethical practice as a type of value-based knowledge. Discussing professional practice ethics also relates to planing your inquiry - and the ethical practice of carrying out practitioner research. While we can come to know what we is acceptable, it is still a valuable process to re-engage with when looking at the framework for inquiry and work. It needs to be a constant in what we do.
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