Introduction
Ethics is an essential tool for successful interaction with society. Since each person is a part of a particular community, he plays an inevitable role depending on the profession. Moreover, each field of activity has its ethics that every employee should follow. In its way, ethics directly indicates a person’s professionalism in a particular area of work. Nowadays, when humanity’s soft skills are especially appreciated during hiring, ethics should be adhered to by everyone. Every single occupation has its principles and moral beliefs, and if a worker in his or her field does not follow them, he or she is considered incompetent. In addition, knowledge, experience, and other skills will not matter in case of rejecting required ethics. For example, a person whose profession is a teacher plays the role of a teacher, which most often happens in educational institutions. Thus, the school should have a unique code of ethics for the entire school community.
Context
According to this idea, the established ethical rules should always be those “helpers” for teachers to avoid conflicts and solve problems that arise by observing the code of ethics. Moreover, the principles observed at school should be the key to a peaceful atmosphere to safely acquire knowledge. However, some ethics rules can lead to disputes between school employees. On top of that, problems with accepting the school’s morality can also affect parents and lead them to conflict with the school and its staff. Consequently, conflicts over accepted ethics directly concern children since they are precisely part of the school society that the school exists. For example, the moral principle of the teacher that there should be the same attitude for every student can lead to misunderstanding both on the part of parents and the whole school.
To analyze already mentioned situations that lead to conflicts, a scenario is created below. If to take an elementary school teacher as an example, then this can serve as an excellent example to represent the whole situation. Children with different abilities study in the classroom. Perhaps someone learns the material quickly and needs time to understand the topic. If the teacher has the same attitude to everyone, then parents who know their children’s abilities may be outraged. One of the parents will say that his child does not have time to study, and one of them will complain that the teacher makes his child the same attitude as the rest while he or she quickly copes with the task. The consequence of such a conflict may be parents’ complaints about the teacher’s incompetence. In addition, parents may demand a change or dismissal of the teacher.
The conflict mentioned above between parents and the teacher originates in the student. Later, this conflict occurs between the school and the parent. Noticing or feeling discomfort in the classroom, the student begins to be dissatisfied and tells his parents about it. More precisely, the conventional morality of doing the same attitude toward everyone leads to the uselessness of the lessons conducted. A more capable child becomes bored during class and loses interest. At the same time, the student who needs time to master the material will begin to lag behind the program and thereby lose interest in studying as well as the first student. As a result, parents first want to solve this and will begin to demand a solution from the school, which can quickly turn into a conflict in the future. To some extent, this also negatively affects the attitude of the student and the teacher. It is because the student begins to take his studies seriously. Consequently, there is a misunderstanding between the student and the teacher.
As for the management of schools, their goal is to provide conditions for quality education and compete with other cases. Their students’ overall result is essential for each educational institution’s success. To become competitive, they must set precise requirements for each student. The established requirements and procedures must be followed for the school’s common good. However, in this decision, no one considers each student’s individual desires. In order to negate this attitude toward students, the teacher introduces ethical norms to emphasize the importance of each student and accept them as individuals with their dreams and interests. However, in these established ethical norms, the teacher finds himself in a difficult position in front of his students and the school staff.
While the teacher introduces into his ethics the maintenance of the feelings of others and respect for personal interests, the leadership can oblige teachers to be demanding of students and force them to obey (Kusumaningrum et al., 2019). At this point, an important role is played by the principles of the teacher and his decision, depending on which it will be decided with whom precisely misunderstanding and conflict will arise. If the teacher chooses to adhere to his moral norms, which are included as ethics, then, in this case, a dispute will occur between the teacher and the school management. Otherwise, if the teacher chooses to focus on the result and competitiveness of students, then students will begin to resent the fact that pressure is being put on them. However, making a kind and respectful attitude towards their students leads to the fact that students may begin to treat their teachers lightly and perceive them as their friends, but not as teachers who should be respected and behave culturally. Consequently, there is a conflict between the teacher and the student.
Objectives
The code of ethics has its own intentions and goals, and in many ways, these goals pursue something positive that will benefit society and provide peace (Shakeri, 2020). The first goal I want to achieve with the help of codes of ethics is to provide a free atmosphere inside the classroom. To do this, I will apply one point of ethics: you must behave confidently and deliver a speech. A clearly defined plan can help strengthen ethics and ethical behavior in the classroom. (Sivakumar et al., 2019). Confidence will let students know that there is no tense atmosphere at the school and everything is going according to plan.
Consequently, students will begin to become self-confident and behave freely subconsciously. In addition, this code will lead to my next goal, becoming a role model. The mentioned point in the code of ethics will bring up my self-confidence in me and serve as an example for others. If I follow this rule, I will be able to serve as a role model for my students, and in the future, they will also become confident people, and this can lead them to great success in life. I pursue this goal because of my desire to teach my students good manners.
Suggestion
If I tell the students how they should behave and set the rules of behavior at a time when I, as a teacher, will not follow them, then there can be no result. “Teachers provide children with a basic but essential moral education” means that the teacher, showing his or her professionalism, must first take responsibility for compliance with the code of ethics (Sherpa, 2018). In addition, respecting the opinions of others, I affirm that the thoughts expressed by my students are valuable and have the right to speak out (Kusumaningrum et al., 2019). It leads to the conclusion that schools should establish a code of ethics in most cases for teachers, and they will show their students and intuitively help them follow the code of ethics. Respecting and evaluating the opinions of schoolchildren is an approach that the school community could start. Then I will be able to teach the school community not to force students to do anything but to lead them to such a decision themselves. It is accompanied by the principle that it is necessary to understand other people’s feelings. In addition, every teacher should learn to behave confidently and firmly so as not to lose their reputation among others, especially among their students. These methods may serve as transformative ethics, as students will begin to change for the better based on them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, teachers should present and observe ethics in the majority since they give knowledge and are engaged in their education. The main goals in setting ethics are to serve as a role model and establish a positive atmosphere. In turn, it is necessary to be able to feel the student and give them freedom of speech so that they can express themselves freely.
References
Kusumaningrum, D. E., Sumarsono, R. B., & Gunawan, I. (2019). ‘Professional ethics and teacher teaching performance: Measurement of teacher empowerment with a soft system methodology approach.’, International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 5(4), 611-624.
Shakeri, M., Pakzaban, F., & Tavalaei, M. (2020). Designing a professional ethics model for primary teachers in Yazd. International Journal of Ethics and Society, 2(2), 19-27.
Sherpa, K. (2018). Importance of professional ethics for teachers. International Education and Research Journal, 4(3), 16-18.
Sivakumar, A., & Arun, A. (2019). Ethics among school teachers in Coimbatore district. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, 9(5), 470-478.