The professional culture of a teacher is a complex, complex component of his personality, combining social, professional and purely personal characteristics. One of the important components of the teacher’s culture is ethics. This area studies the moral problems of human life, gives a definition of good and evil, considers various models of interpersonal relations and human behavior in society. It is necessary to analyze the ethical principles in the profession of a teacher and identify the norms for the corresponding specialty.
An important basis of the teacher’s professional culture is pedagogical ethics or deontology, which determines the normative moral positions that the teacher must follow in the process of communicating with students, their parents, and colleagues. Elements of pedagogical ethics appeared along with the emergence of pedagogical activity as a special social function (ACM, 2022). The teacher has a special role in this process, laying the foundations of a materialistic worldview, it is designed to give students the foundations of ethical knowledge (Engelgart & Pritchard, 2018). To do this, the teacher himself must fully assimilate the ideas and values of high morality and, to the best of his ability, strive to put them into practice. The teacher becomes an educator only after mastering the finest instrument of education – the science of morality, ethics (Engelgart & Pritchard, 2018). Without knowledge of the theory of morality, today there cannot be a full-fledged professional training of a teacher.
Pedagogical ethics considers the essence of the main categories of pedagogical morality and moral values. Moral values can be called a system of ideas about good and evil, justice and honor, which act as a kind of assessment of the nature of life phenomena, moral virtues and actions of people. All basic moral concepts are applicable to pedagogical activity, however, individual concepts reflect such features of pedagogical views, activities and relationships that distinguish pedagogical ethics as a relatively independent section of ethics (Engelgart & Pritchard, 2018). Among these categories are professional pedagogical duty, pedagogical justice, pedagogical honor and pedagogical authority.
Justice generally characterizes the correspondence between the merits of people and their social recognition, rights and duties. Pedagogical justice has specific features, representing a kind of measure of the objectivity of the teacher, the level of his moral upbringing (kindness, integrity, humanity), which is manifested in his assessments of the actions of students, their attitude to learning, socially useful activities. Justice is the moral quality of the teacher and the assessment of the measures of his influence on students, corresponding to their real merits to the team.
Pedagogical justice is a kind of measure of the objectivity of the teacher, the level of his moral education. Fairness is the basis of the child’s trust in the teacher. Nevertheless, there is no abstract justice – outside of individuality, outside of personal interests, passions, impulses (State Board of Education Rule). In order to become fair, one must know the subtlety of the spiritual world of each child. Professional pedagogical duty is one of the most important categories of pedagogical ethics (Engelgart & Pritchard, 2018). This concept concentrates ideas about the totality of requirements and moral precepts imposed by society on the personality of a teacher, on the performance of professional duties: to perform certain labor functions, mainly intellectual, to build relationships with students, their parents, work colleagues, to be deeply aware of one’s attitude to the chosen profession, student and teaching staff and society as a whole.
The basis of professional pedagogical duty is the objective and actual needs of society in the education and upbringing of the younger generations. The professional duty of a teacher is programmed with the need for a creative attitude to their work, special demands on oneself, the desire to replenish professional knowledge and improve pedagogical skills, the need for a respectful and demanding attitude towards students and their parents, the ability to resolve complex collisions and conflicts of school life.
References
ACM. (2022). ACM code of ethics and professional conduct. Web.
Engelgart, E. E. & Pritchard, M. S. (Eds.). (2018). Ethics across the curriculum – pedagogical perspectives. Springer International Publishing.
State Board of Education Rule. (n. d.). The code of ethics of the education profession in Florida. Web.