Looking further into Ethical considerations.

Completing the task on Ethics got the ball rolling a little for me so I decided to look a little further into the subject.

Code of Professional Conduct and Practicefor Teachers of Dance

I found this document via the ISTD (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing) website, I found it points out many ethical considerations for both employers and employees including, Integrity, Competency and due skill and diligence, and is from the specific role of a dance teacher. I think this will be a good source to refer back to while conducting my inquiry and during my professional career.

Ethics resource Center

The Ethics Resource Center is an organization providing information, guidance and resources.

ERC is a non-profit, nonpartisan research organization, dedicated to independent research that advances high ethical standards and practices in public and private institutions.  

Ethical issues in qualitative research

I thought this would be useful for my inquiry as my research data will be qualitative, so I hoped it would give me some tips or food for thought. I found it an interesting read. The writer uses real-life examples to explain what complications you might encounter during conducting your research. The first example talks about the confession of abuse during an inquiry interview, this circumstance was something I had thought about lightly before but the ethical debate lead me to reflect deeper on the issue.

This story illustrates a delicate balance you might face between trying to do what is right in terms of maintaining privacy and, at the same time, recognizing that you have received information that might be damaging to the participant. Should you tell someone? If so,who? What about the promise you made to maintain privacy? You might not have thought about ethics while you were planning your research. Yet, recently, much has been written on the topic. I want you to think about what kinds of issues you might face and how you would handle them.

I’m glad I have read this in my planning stage as it gives me time to think about how I would act if certain situations where to arise, perhaps a way around this dilemma is to state in your informed consent that all information shared is to remain confidential unless I feel is possess risk towards themselves or another person, after all an important part of our jobs and a high consideration for our inquiry is the safeguarding of those in out care.

Another discussion that I thought was important and I will need to consider whilst delivering and analysing my data gathered from my inquiry is.... 

Informed consent

They also have a reasonable expectation that they will not be coerced into participation……if a study is to be done in an organization, individuals within that group (e.g. Students, workers) might feel that they cannot refuse when asked. There might be pressure placed on them by peers or by superiors.

I knew I would need to gain the consent of my students before they participate in my inquiry, what I didn’t realise is how many dimensions there are to gaining this consent. The college where I work is small 30-40 students in each year and only three years, at some point during my working week I teach every student in the college. I will need to ensure that the students feel they can refuse to participate in the inquiry without any negative repercussions, maybe I should ask for volunteers rather than selecting students?
This brings me to another consideration I encountered while reading this chapter the example sanareo discussed an inquiry into a pre-school where the founders were interviewed, privacy was promised to those interviewed but as it was a small community there was a chance that the school and even the interviewee could be identified once the findings were published despite the effort to disguise names. As I have mentioned my place of work is small and all students know each other. I think I will need to take extra precautions to try to avoid revealing identifying characteristics of my students.

Whilst reading this chapter the writer mentioned a columnist from the New York Times called ‘The Ethicist’ so naturally that was my next call. Currently Chuck Klosterman, formerly Ariel Kaminer and Randy Cohen, the column provides ethical advice on money, relationships, work, family, etc. Although only one person’s view this keeps the topic of ethics at the forefront of your mind and I found myself thinking what I would do or what advice I would give to someone in the situations put forth on the column and how they differ to the views of others, they could pose as good debate questions

Looking into ethics has confirmed what I knew and brought to light some things that I was aware of but hadn't really coincided in detail. Data protection was one of these, I knew about the data protection Act 1998 but this task has highlighted some of the regulations, but this task has made me think more about types of data and how I will it.

I find that most of the things I have read regarding professional ethics are in line with my own personal ethics, researching them has helped me to recall those that I forgot and ferment those that I use regularly.

Every employee is called upon to make decisions in the normal course of doing his/her job. Organizations cannot function effectively if employees are not empowered to make decisions consistent with their positions and responsibilities.

 The PLUS Decision Making Model, Ethics Resource Center

Ethics are about making decisions, we make thousands of them daily. Our personal ethics govern the outcome of them decisions. For those that need to be made in a professional environment, decisions need time and consideration into the ethics of your employer and the workplace.