Dr. Tajuddeen A. Williams

Ethics in the classroom

· Personal Essays

Although many of the questions addressed situations that I could see in the life of an instructor, other behaviors were hard to imagine. There are ethical challenges in just about every aspect of being a teacher. Although I believe that Tabachnick, Keith-Spiegel, and Pope (1991) addressed many of these difficulties in the questions that were asked, it gave me, as the reader, an opportunity to ponder on how I would respond to such inquiries. On the one hand, I find myself greatly at odds with the results of some questions, such as the number of instructors who fantasize about students. Although I find the behavior unacceptable, I can understand the human aspect of it. However, it surprises me that almost 90% of male teachers admitted to doing so. Much like it surprises me that a little more than one-fourth of male teachers becoming sexually involved with their students was likely.

There are some ethical issues that are not as clear cut as to what is acceptable and what is not, even in academia. Part of the problem is that we are dealing with adults who are perfectly capable of making adult decisions. However, due to power dynamics, ethical issues can be a fine line. Accepting help or giving help can be one of those fine lines. There are questions posed in the paper were answers I expected, such as "teaching while under the influence of alcohol," "accepting undeserved authorship on a student's published paper," and "telling a student: ‘I am sexually attracted to you.'" All of those questions were across the board believed to be unethical.

Furthermore, as I read the answers, I had a feeling of shock to some of the responses. This is regardless of whether the answers were in the majority or not. The fact that a minority of people taught what I feel is an adverse behavior and felt that is was ethical was surprising. Some of the questions left me speechless as to how resources could be used, that was not done on your time or with your money, could be found to be acceptable, even by a minority of people as well. One of the things that stand out the most with this study is the polarity in which responses were. There are some questions which I expected not only to be a landslide, but completely one-sided much like the replies to teaching “making deliberate or repeated sexual comments, gestures, or physical contact that is unwanted by the student” is completely unethical, which had a response rate of 99%. However, the 3.5% who find it unquestionably ethical makes me fear for the students they are teaching and have taught.

The elements that surprised me the most were the questions about sexuality and alcohol/drug use. These are issues that I probably would not have thought to ask whether they were ethical or not. Part of the rationale for that is because I do not know of anyone who would find such behavior as being acceptable. I have had college professors and secondary school teachers who have shown up to teach smelling like alcohol. Other items, such as the selling of unwanted complimentary textbooks to used book vendor raises questions. As I go through the questions, I realize how difficult some of the issues are. It would not be something that I would do because I did not pay for them, yet selling them would make me a profit. However, these are things that are not addressed.

The demographic breakdown of some of the responses did not surprise me. As I was reading about the difference in men and women when it came to being sexually involved with students as well as sexual fantasies, it is what I expected. This is in the sense that men partook in the behaviors more than women, but not necessarily the percentage. This is also the case with regards to men being sexually attracted to students. However, I was surprised by the responses with regards to profanity and whether it was acceptable to certain age groups. I expected a higher percentage of those over 50 to be accepting of using profanity. However, I believe this view is influenced by my own experiences with college professors outside of an online environment, in which case I have never seen it online from an instructor.

The ethical dilemmas that many of the questions pose give me pause to how I would respond versus the socially acceptable response. There are a few issues that I feel strongly about, because of personal ethical beliefs that are not addressed in APA's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct but come from more of a religious background and upbringing. From my own beliefs, I can see how some of the questions vary in responses the way they do. There are other issues that I cannot condone that even a small number of respondents agreed to. One such question is the teaching that certain races are intellectually inferior. Although the vast majority would not teach this, it is still disturbing that some instructors would. What is even more disturbing is that there are some who feel that it is unquestionably ethical to do so.

Some of the ethical issues that arise in the questions are not issues that any particular code of conduct addresses and then there are ones that provide guidelines, but do not explicitly forbid their actions (Pope & Vetter, 1992). This past week we discussed a scenario where an instructor went to his favorite bar and ran into one of his previous students. After a night of drinking, the instructor went back to the student’s abode and spent the night. In my eyes, this is not ethical, but guidelines do not forbid these interactions except in certain circumstances. Even though the instructor is not a direct influence on the student anymore, I am under the view that a student enrolls in an institution of higher learning to learn. I can also see the other side of the argument as well, where someone may argue that they are no longer a student of the instructor. However, my concern would be for the student’s psychological wellbeing.

My response to this situation is a result of life experience from those I have met. I met a couple of young ladies who had relationships with their current and former professors. They both ended up dropping out of school and neither returned. Instead, they continued to enroll into different institutions of higher learned and only one finished her degree. They spoke about the negative consequences of their actions and how it weighed on their future. Therefore, when thinking about this question, I cannot help but remember their stories. Our experiences play a significant role in what we find ethical and unethical (Taylor, 2011). I do not find it acceptable to use school resources to create a popular trade book. Nor do I find it acceptable to give easy tests to be popular with the students.

Other answers, I believe have changed over the years. The question about “moonlighting” while working full-time may vary differently now than what was the case back then. Several news articles and studies have come out discussing how it is hard to make a living as a professor (Brennan & Magness, 2016). Especially, with more than 50% of the teachers in the United States being an adjunct. In understanding the numbers, these professors are also paid significantly less than their full-time counterparts which have led to many of them being on public assistance despite having advanced degrees (Brennan & Magness, 2016). I believe the answer to the question for each person lies in what they know about the salary and the field. I also think that personal experience comes into play with this issue as well. Therefore, if it is something that is not against the policy of the school in which a person is employed, I would find it perfectly acceptable to do so. Part of my experience includes having professors who teach at Walden University but also have a full-time job elsewhere.

Everyone has their own beliefs when it comes to certain topics. This is surely the case with questions on religion and homosexuality. This is what I think about when I read the responses to “teaching content in a nonobjective or incomplete manner." No one is immune to bias. However, I believe that our job as teachers is to allow the students to formulate their own opinions about the subject matter and not inherently distrust their ability to make decisions(Cook-Sather, 2002). This could even tie back to the question of teaching that certain races are intellectually inferior. Most respondents stated that they would rarely do so. However, objectivity is one of the hallmarks we are to pursue as researchers. We have to present information as it is and not how we want it to be. Teaching incompletely, I feel needs more information, but if it is done to allow students to research, then I feel differently about that. It is not possible to teach everything about a subject. I found this to be the case in several of my other classes where there were topics not covered in the book, but the teacher briefly spoke about them or made comments on my papers. In doing so, I was able to research on my own.

After reading through the responses, I have to take into consideration my own biases when looking towards a future in teaching. I understand that everyone will have different views of what is ethical versus unethical. And even the use of the various ethical models will not solve that issue among different people. I am aware that some of my views of what I deem unethical are things that I feel go against beliefs that are rooted in ethics outside of what APA and AAUP have considered ethical. However, none of my views are contrary to that. My decisions are what I find ethical outside of those sources involve things that will allow me to sleep well at night knowing that I did them. As I mentioned previously, there is no way that I can benefit from an institution or someone else's work, and that would be acceptable to me. I believe being academically responsible plays a significant role in understanding what is considered ethical behavior and what is not.

References

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