Full transcript
0:05Stephanie what is a code of ethics the
0:08code of ethics is a hallmark of every
0:10profession because it assures the
0:13society that the profession will serve
0:15the public good and will provide
0:18services that will be provided with
0:19expect that services will be provided
0:22with acceptable moral conduct and we do
0:24that because a profession is
0:28characterized by serving a significant
0:31social need and because it is doing work
0:34that is important in the society then
0:37there needs to be an assurance that it
0:41will do that job and can that end that
0:45professionals will conduct themselves in
0:48immoral ways so so it is it is something
0:51that defines a profession if you don't
0:53if you don't have a code of ethics
0:55you're not a profession right at some
0:57level exactly we all come to our work
1:04with children or whatever other work we
1:06do with our personal values the beliefs
1:10of what we believe to be intrinsically
1:12worthwhile in our personal morality
1:14which we learned in childhood and
1:17throughout our lives and those are our
1:18views of what's right and wrong these
1:21are an important foundation but they're
1:23not enough to guide professional
1:25practice each profession has its own
1:28values we just talked about our the core
1:30values of early childhood education and
1:32each profession in that code has its own
1:36ethical commitments so professional
1:40ethics involves reflection on
1:43responsibility that is carried out
1:45collectively and systematically by the
1:47membership of a profession and that's
1:49what we did when we developed in a UIC
1:52code this process is documented in the
1:55code of ethics which communicates the
1:57professions mission and responsibilities
2:00so codes are based on core values those
2:04are the agreed on commitments that
2:07everyone within the profession has to
2:10sign on to those core values the code
2:14spells out the responsibilities of
2:16professionals in any
2:19any profession and helps them address
2:22the ethical challenges that they face in
2:24their work an important thing about a
2:27code is that lets the profession speak
2:29with a collective voice so everybody
2:31isn't saying their own piece of what
2:33they think the morality is but it it
2:36lets us say who we are as a field as a
2:40profession not who we are as individuals
2:42and it also helps us to solve the kinds
2:48of problems that come up that involve
2:50ethics so we don't have to rely on our
2:52personal values and our personal
2:54morality so in our field in early
2:57childhood education we have a code it's
3:01a voluntary code and can you tell us
3:04about that how is how is NAU icees code
3:07of ethical conduct on a sort of unique
3:10in the worlds of in the world of ethics
3:14interesting question okay
3:17as I've been reading more since I
3:20retired and they had some time to do
3:21some reading and I thought more about
3:24this I I am more and more persuaded
3:28about the importance of our code because
3:30the work we do is so important we are
3:33working with children at a critical
3:34period in their development and we are
3:36working with children when they are very
3:38young and very vulnerable so what we do
3:41has a huge impact on them so there are
3:44discussions about is early childhood a
3:46profession or isn't it a profession and
3:48I feel really strongly now that doesn't
3:52matter we are striving to become a
3:54profession however we define ourselves
3:56but the work we do is critical and we
4:00have great power over young children
4:02I'll talk about that again a little bit
4:03later so engaging with professional
4:06ethics helps us to think about our
4:09responsibilities and to address some of
4:12the the situations that we face it lets
4:18us live by ethical standards we know and
4:22used a code I think it's very important
4:25because of the work we do the na ey c
4:30code evolved from the work we did in the
4:31mid nineteen eighty
4:32that we've talked about and it continues
4:35today one of the things that we've
4:37learned is a code is a living document
4:38you don't write it I know some
4:41professional associations that did they
4:43wrote their code in the 1970s and there
4:45they are they're done we're not done our
4:48field keeps changing we gain more
4:52insight and so the code is a living
4:54document and I we talked about that
4:59before the first thing we did was really
5:01agree on our core values so we know who
5:03we are when we begin to look at a
5:05situation we go back and we say who are
5:07we what what do we agree on that we
5:09believe in these values come from the
5:14long history of our field and they form
5:18the foundation of the code so everything
5:22in the code and all of our ethical
5:24consideration grows from those values
5:26and as I said that was the most
5:30interesting and gratifying part of
5:33working on the code is how much
5:34agreement we have on our core values I
5:36think that you said what's unique about
5:38early childhood I think the level of our
5:41consistent belief in our values and our
5:44ability to articulate them or something
5:46that was really special and admirable
5:48about us so I talked about the process
5:50we went through and identifying what the
5:52dilemmas were the code is divided into
5:55four sections and these were identified
5:58in in the very beginning of our work the
6:04first item the first section in the code
6:06has to do with children and that was
6:10very clear we all agreed on that that's
6:12our primary commitment the children come
6:14first but then we have responsibilities
6:16to families and then to our colleagues
6:19and employers and to the community and
6:21society because we really we are serving
6:25our next generation and we are doing
6:28important work for the society we wish
6:30they would recognize it a little more
6:32but we're working on that each of the
6:35sections the four sections is divided
6:37into two parts the first is the ideals
6:40and those are our aspirations the ideals
6:44are I our ideas about
6:46what who we want to be what we want to
6:49be like in the best of all possible
6:50worlds this is what all early childhood
6:52educators would be like and this is how
6:54they'd be behaved so the ideals sort of
7:00let us look to our aspirations let us
7:03look to who we want to be principals are
7:05very different principles and that's
7:07that's the second section so the the
7:09ideals are all I labeled I the
7:11principles are labeled P they are rules
7:14of professional conduct they identified
7:17the practices that are required
7:19permitted or prohibited they're serious
7:23they're to be taken seriously and when a
7:25when a principal in a code of ethics
7:28says you should it means you should and
7:32we write the code to say if you don't do
7:34what it says you should do you are not
7:38being ethical in your practice so when
7:40we do revisions we have to be very
7:41careful that we don't put things that we
7:44think are nice into the principles right
7:46we are very serious about the principles
7:49well some are you should and then some
7:52are and you do have permission to do
7:54this as well because some of the
7:56principles are you know if I have a
7:58concern about a practice in my program I
8:00have permission to tell somebody about
8:02that's right and it doesn't say you have
8:04to but it but it does say because we
8:07tend to be a field made up of women who
8:14care for little children so we tend to
8:16be really caring nurturing people so
8:19when after the men but we tend to be a
8:23fair I'm thinking of Carol Gilligan and
8:25work on work on women's morality but we
8:28tend to really want to get along with
8:30other people we tend to not want to
8:34confront so we're nice we are nice and
8:37so sometimes the ethical thing to do is
8:42to let someone know when you think that
8:44their behavior is not good for children
8:45and the code says you may do that it
8:47doesn't say you have to write but the
8:49code does say you may not hurt children
8:51right
8:51that is not optional right