A Teacher Education Ethics Initiative: A Collaborative Response to a Professional Need

Clicking off your office light, briefcase in hand, you reach for the door handle when a soft voice says, `Dr. Mortimer, are you busy?' Amy stands before you looking embarrassed and distraught. `Sure, come on in.' You mentally run through the conference you had with Amy and her cooperating teacher only two hours ago. Both had said everything was going well. You had given Amy some pointers on classroom management that had seemed quite challenging for her, but the teacher had responded, `Give her time: she'll catch on.' The tears begin to flow as Amy launches into a description of Mrs. Heywood's approach. Today had been the last straw for Amy when three children had been made to stand with their noses to the wall because they did not write the subtraction tables quickly enough. All the procedures (and sometimes politics) of placing student teachers come to mind while you continue to listen to Amy who says she has been afraid to tell you and is worried that she is causing trouble. She thinks maybe she should give up teaching. Was it only yesterday that Jeff had appeared at your door saying that his counselor in liberal arts had suggested that he transfer to early childhood education? He was having academic problems, but his counselor pointed out that he is fantastic with kids. His 12 nieces and nephews love to rough house with him. Weighing his grade point average (way below your program's requirements) and considering the demand for males in the field, you told him you would get back to him in a few days. How could you say no when the dean had just discussed declining enrollment at last week's faculty meeting? What do teacher educators do in situations such as these? What guides their decisionmaking process? Many teacher educators face these or similar dilemmas. They may immediately consider the practical and political implications but often overlook the ethical principles applicable to many teacher education dilemmas. In the above scenarios, several issues fill the teacher educator's thoughts as she considers how to deal with these situations. When she thinks about Amy, she considers her ethical responsibilities to the young woman sitting in front of her; she also thinks about her role supporting the school-university partnership and her responsibility to the children in Mrs. Heywood's class. She has practical concerns. She wonders about the implications of finding a second placement for Amy at this point in the semester. Jeff's situation also raises a number of concerns. The teacher educator must examine the ethical implications of setting standards for program enrollment and put them into the context of accepted professional standards of practice. Her practical concern about the need to maintain and increase enrollment complicates matters. She must confront the dilemma created when she recommends admitting an unqualified student who may compromise the right of all children to a knowledgeable teacher. In cases like these, teacher educators' reliance on core values and principles of the profession, coupled with their own beliefs and ideals and those of their concrete moral communities (Nash, 1991), forms the bases for their ethical decisions. Such issues raise perplexing ethical dilemmas for teacher educators lacking a specific statement of professional ethics to guide their behaviors. Three professional organizations, the Association of Associate Degree Early Childhood Educators (ACCESS), the Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC), and the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE), have joined together to identify and address specific ethical issues of significance to teacher educators. In this article, we discuss professional ethics in teacher education and note the particular challenges for teacher educators, specifically early childhood teacher educators, in addressing professional ethics. …