Week 28 - Act in Your Professional Environment (Take Action)

This week I discuss the ethical issues that occurred during the Taking Action phase of the Spiral of  Inquiry (Kaser & Halbert. 2017) using Rolfe’s Model of Reflection.

Step 1 - What

When putting together the Action Plan a number of ethical issues were identified but a new one popped up involving the need to carry out baseline testing. Whilst there is no dispute that testing was required, normally I would test during week 3 once I had established class routines and developed relationships with my students. However, I needed the data much sooner. In my last blog post, I talked about the importance of Whanaungatanga - Building relationships - with whanau, and students.

Step 2 - So What


 Using Ehrich’s (2011) ethical decision-making framework I needed to consider competing forces. These fell within the Professional Ethics section - the need to develop relationships with my students, to teach them routines and foundations such as growth mindset, before embarking on any testing or units of work. 

 This conflicted with my need to test students to get baseline data for my inquiry. In order to teach and make a difference for students learning, I needed a few weeks of solid teaching. However, my assignments give me a very specific timeframe. I had to weigh up my need to excel in my assignments, with my ethical promise to do no harm to my students. 

I had two options - test as soon as possible or leave the testing. 

 If I test during the first week of term 1 it could disrupt the development of student-teacher relationships, in fact it could even be a barrier to a good relationship developing at all. However, I did not feel I could leave the testing. I needed baseline data in order to gauge the effectiveness of my teaching and my inquiry. 

Hall (2001) clearly gives the message that students should be given priority, so testing on day 1 was dismissed. I needed to find a way to minimize negative impacts on my students. 

The course of action that I decided to take was to test during the first week, but not on the first day. I spread the required tests over the rest of the week, in short bursts and focused on relationships for the rest of the day.

Step 3 - Now What

At my school, there is an expectation that we will cover certain maths topics during the first few weeks of term. I had already had a conversation with my Principal which led me to choose maths as my area for research and which fitted with the whole school professional development focus. 


Fortunately, this year, I just had the requirement to teach general knowledge and strategies during term 1. This meant that there were few restrictions to my actions (Hall 2001). 

This fitted with the Havelock North Primary Charter (2019) which states the need ‘To ensure a safe and caring optimal learning environment’ and Our code which includes ‘Professional Relationships - Establish and maintain professional relationships and behaviours focused on the learning and wellbeing of each learner.’ (Education Council. 2017). I could meet both of these requirements within my inquiry.

For my next Spiral of Inquiry cycle with this class, I won’t have to worry about developing relationships or mindset as these will already have been covered (although they are both important areas to continue to develop throughout the year.) 

In future years I will begin an Inquiry cycle at the beginning of the year with the Scan phase and ensure that I build deep relationships with students and whanau, checking that relationships are solid before I move into Taking Action.

 References
Education Council. (2017a). Our Code Our Standards.Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794

Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. In IIPE Conference, Brisbane.

Kaser, L. & J. Halbert. (2017). The Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindset in school systems and schools. C21 Canada. Retrieved from http://c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spiral-Playbook.pdf

Otago Polytechnic. (n.d.). Reflective Writing. Retrieved from https://www.op.ac.nz/assets/LearningAdvice/Reflective-writing.pdf

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