Delving further into Ethical Considerations

Last night I was involved in a Skype session with a Module One focus, specifically looking at the topic of ethical considerations.

This was a session I was extremely keen to be involved in as it is a subject I have been grappling with over the past few weeks. Hearing others' thoughts was inspiring and really made me challenge my own interpretation of ethics and gaining a deeper understanding of them. A specific question during the Skype session from Maria really opened up my views on the subject and propelled me into a new realm of understanding regarding the topic...

"Where do your right and wrongs come from?"

Questioning where my ethical considerations have grown from. Has my own training had an influence on the ethical considerations I have? Have my ethics changed over the various experiences that I have had? Do the influences around me affect my ethical considerations?

I had not looked specifically into where my own ethical considerations had come from. Within my teaching practice I have many morals that I ensure to apply to my classes. Inclusive practice. Equality. Differentiation. But my main focus it that I believe in a positive holistic approach to the work I present and encourage students to be self motivated and self analytical in their own study. Encouraging them to think like artists. I believe I also have an ethical obligation to support equality and inclusivity through appreciating individuals previous background and training, whilst not letting students who have had less previous training become disadvantaged.

Educational frameworks and codes of conduct within my professional practice often put constraints on this and don't make space or time for the journey of self understanding. From my own experiences, I believe these constraints can hinder the process of learning and we are in danger of focusing on the exam result or the assessment mark as a pose to the knowledge acquired through the journey. I believe that there is more to gain on focusing on the cumulative practice element of work and this encourages positive comprehension of subject matter that can be taken into their future. 

When reflecting back on my own training to see where my ethics on delivery of teaching have derived from, I can see a difference between teachers and teaching styles and how these influenced own development. I found that I responded better to teachers that encouraged creativity and had a more holistic approach to the work that they were delivering. I believe that this has had a huge influence on my ethics and the approach to my own teaching practice. I endeavour to inspire students to develop their creativity through encouragement and their own embodiment of their study. I must ensure to remember that others may have a different approach and my own ethics are applicable to me but less effective in other peoples practice. For example, I believe my approach suits an FE and HE course, but may not be as effective in teachers of younger age groups who may have found that a more disciplined structure has a more positive outcome to learning. 

Prior to the Skype session, I had been exploring what my ethical considerations were looking at how this compares with others. Following feedback from my draft essay, I have focused on ensuring that I am appreciating and understanding other people's ethical considerations when exploring my professional practice and looking at how these challenge my own. Through reading others' blogs who have gained understanding from a recent campus session, I wanted to gain a specific understanding of ethics within research and ensure that my approach to my research comes from different ethical view points and principles. This is something I have really taken into consideration when reviewing my bibliography and reference points within both my essay and diagram.

I look forward to taking the points raised and the thoughts discussed around ethical considerations and developing them further, looking deeper into the root of how my own ethics have evolved and the experiences and influences that have changed or strengthened them.