The Profession of Education: Responsibilities, Ethics and Pedagogic
Experimentation
Shannon Kincaid, Ph.D.
Philip Pecorino, Ph.D.
The
art of teaching is to teach, to teach well and to teach even better.

Chapter: IX
Cases/Scenarios
This chapter is simply a
collection of a
number of scenarios that can be treated as material
for a case study, an ethical case study. These cases can be
used in a number of different ways to illustrate points or to
develop moral reasoning. Many of the cases involve a
number of different issues and could be classified as illustrative
of any one of them. In this collection the cases are offered
in groups but they can be used to illustrate issues other than those
under the heading in which they have been placed. There will
be no attempt in this chapter to do more than to present scenarios
as so much material for case study. In Chapter XI of this work two
particular cases are offered along with their case studies in which there are analyses,
suggested resolutions and recognition of significant problems with
the production of an ethical solution that follows from premises
that include acknowledgement of the professional status of educators
and the basic responsibilities of faculty and educational
institutions. In those studies the notion of a complex of
responsibilities (individual, collective and institutional ) is
employed as being unavoidable in practice when confronted with a
particularly difficult situation in which the disideratum
is a complete solution.
There are many cases of moral and ethical issues and problems to
be found in exposes of the academy. Two works that are
particularly rich as they are replete with tales of reprehensible
conduct and the failure to adequately address and redress such
behaviors are:
Lewis, Michael.
Poisoning the Ivy: The Seven Deadly Sins and Other Vices of Higher
Education in America. Armonk, NY: E. Sharpe,1997.
Sykes, Charles. Prof Scam: Professors and the Demise of
Higher Education. New York: St Martin's Press, 1988.
There are collections of cases
related to education available at a variety of locations including
those at the Center for the Study of
Ethics:
http://www.uvsc.edu/ethics/curriculum/education/ . Click
on any title below for materials.
Other cases are offered under
the heading of "Academic Ethics" in a listing at Ethics Updates
and are available at
http://ethics.sandiego.edu/resources/cases/HomeOverview.asp
Click on the numeral in the left column for each case.
LINK |
Topic |
|
Case Author |
21 |
Financial Aid |
Academic ethics |
Ladenson, Robert F. |
26 |
Cliff Notes |
Academic
ethics |
McCarthy,
Andy |
35 |
MP3 on campus |
Academic
ethics |
Ladenson,
Robert F. |
37 |
Fairness in
punishment |
Academic
ethics |
Ladenson,
Robert F |
53 |
The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion |
Academic
ethics |
Ladenson,
Robert F. |
60 |
Student
health insurance |
Academic
ethics |
Ladenson,
Robert F. |
72 |
SAT Exams and
Affirmative Action |
Academic
ethics |
Ladenson,
Robert F. |
93 |
Liasons
academiques |
Academic
ethics |
Hinman,
Lawrence M. |
95 |
“Not on our
network, you can’t…”
Downloading unauthorized files at colleges and universities |
Academic
ethics |
Hinman,
Lawrence M. |
The cases listed above could be placed under
the headings offered by Michael Bayles. He has stated that there are the most general ethical or moral
problems found in nearly every profession. These include:
- Serving the requests of clients
- Appropriate scope of service
- Types of fees
- Conflicts of interest
- Conflicts between clients
- Obligations to inform clients
- Obligations to others beyond the client and
to society
- Ethics of research
- Informing on the ethics or behavior of
colleagues
This claim is true of the profession of education. Of this
list there are those ethical concerns or moral problems related to
education that have been touched upon already in the work above :
There are certainly situations in education that present
moral dilemmas and ethical issues that could be presented here below under
all of the headings indicated by Bayles and certainly under each of those headings
just indicated. In this work an approach has been presented
for situating ethical discourse and decision making that looks at a
complex of responsibilities that are held in relation to one another
(chapter IV).
In order to indicate which set of responsibilities might be taken to be
involved in the most essential manner in each of the cases that will
be presented
below the cases or scenarios are being placed here
under those headings:
A. Individual Responsibility
-
i. Teaching
-
ii. Research
-
iii. Experimentation
B. Collective Responsibility
C. Institutional
Responsibility
A. i. Individual Responsibility:
Teaching
Sketch /scenario # Buy my book: Conflicts of interests
A faculty member publishes a text and requires its use by the
students in the classes taught by that instructor. All the
royalties from the sales of the book to all purchasers go to the
instructor-author.
Variation 1: The department chairperson has written a
textbook and it has been published and it is required to be used
in all sections of the courses for which it is an appropriate
text. All the royalties from the sales of the book to
all purchasers go to the department chairperson-author.
Variation 2: The department chairperson and another member of
the faculty of the department have written a textbook and it has
been published and it is required to be used in all sections of
the courses for which it is an appropriate text. All
the royalties from the sales of the book to all purchasers go to
the department chairperson and to the other member of the faculty
of the department as authors.
--cf:
http://www.aaup.org/statements/REPORTS/05owntext.htm
AAUP REPORT On
Professors Assigning Their Own Texts to Students
see also "How Do Professors Choose Texts for Courses?" by
Austin Cline at
http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutethics/a/ProfessorsBribe_2.htm
Sketch /scenario # Editorial
Board Member: Conflicts of interests
A small publishing house
solicits faculty to become members of an Editorial Board by placing
orders for a new textbook about to be published or recently
published by the company. In return for submitting a "review"
of the text after use the faculty member is credited with being a
member of the editorial board.
see also "Professors taking bribes
to require books", by Austin Cline at
http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutethics/a/ProfessorsBribe.htm
Sketch /scenario #
Textbook Author: Conflicts of interests
A custom publishing firm- or
branch of a large publishing house- contacts faculty members
soliciting them as authors of textbooks. The firm offers to
put together a text from the instructor's own writings and from
others published works. The instructor need only guarantee the
requiring of its purchase by the students in the classes taught by
that instructor over a specified period of time or until a specified
number of the texts are sold. The instructor is credited as
the author of he text and ahs a publication to claim on the
instructor's vita.
Sketch /scenario #
Requiring students to vote: Appropriate scope of service
Professor Skaggs, a gentle-spoken 66-year-old, sent out
a faculty wide e-mail message announcing that she planned to make voting a
class requirement. She urged other faculty members to do the same.
"I will explain this move by reminding my students that
we not only study the forces that shape our American
culture," Professor Skaggs wrote, "but also participate in shaping the
culture as well." --New York Times, September 22, 2004.
Read about this scenario by
clicking here: You must Vote
-Merrill Skaggs –Drew
University
Sketch /scenario # One
person cheats- the entire class must retake the exam
At the very end of an in-class
examination involving 37 students in a single room an instructor
discovers by direct observation that two students have been cheating
by working together and passing information related to the
examination questions. The instructor stops the exam and
informs the entire class that the exam just concluded will not be
graded and will be destroyed and that a new examination will be
prepared that they must all take during the next class period.
Sketch /scenario #
Professional Conference: Conflicts of interests
Professor F often cancels or
reschedules classes in order to attend professional conferences at
which professor F makes presentations, serves on a panel or attends
sessions related to Professor F's academic discipline.
Sketch /scenario #
not meeting classes: Conflict in Interests
A professor in one department is known by colleagues both in and out
of that department to regularly (every Monday) not to meet with
classes one of three scheduled days each week. That faculty
member enters into activities on that day that are outside of
teaching and provide considerable income to that faculty member.
No colleague reports this. The chair of the department asks no
questions of the faculty member when hearing from students of the
failure to meet with class on Mondays.
Sketch /scenario # having classes do exercises
in textbook with no instruction: Serving the interests/requests of clients
In a department that offers a
sequence of courses as part of the major faculty who teach
mid-level classes hear regularly over several semesters from some of
the students who enter their classes that they do not have some of
the background knowledge that the mid level course relies on the
first introductory and foundational course to have covered.
These students claim that they took the introductory level class
with a professor T who simply had them do exercises in the
textbook each class period and did not lecture or do much more than
monitor the class while they did their "assignments".
Professor T is a tenured senior member of the department and a
friend of the department chairperson and the mid level instructors
are junior members of the faculty in that department.
Sketch /scenario #
"You have no right to challenge me": Serving the requests of clients
In a biology class a student
rejects the notion that the planet earth is more than 6,00 years old
and that human beings are as they are due to a process of evolution.
The student claims that the account offered in the student's
religious tradition as contained in its sacred scripture is
literally true. When the biology instructor indicates that the
empirical claims presented through that scripture can not be
literally true and that there exists evidence in refutation of many
of those claims the student responds to the instructor with the
claim that "You have no right to challenge me, these are my beliefs
and I have a right to hold them."
Sketch /scenario # : I
want another section: Serving the requests of clients
A student meets with the
chairperson of a department of Psychology. The request ?
The student wanted to be placed into another section of the
introduction to Psychology class. The reason? The
student wanted a section of the course where the instructor would
not attempt to present claims related to evolution and evolutionary
psychology in particular.
Sketch /scenario # What
do I need this for? : Obligations to others beyond the client and to society: Whose
benefit?
A student challenges the need
or the requirement to take classes in mathematics, claiming I want
to be a dance instructor. What do I need this for?"
A. ii. Individual Responsibility:
Research
Sketch /scenario # To teach
better: Ethics of research
Professor P has taught for over 35 years at University U. The
professor is a well known scholar who is much published. Professor P
is teaching one of his "signature" classes in hs specialty.
Professor P sits in the front of the room in each class and reads from his
notes that are yellowing due to their age. Professor P has not
changed his notes nor his manner of instruction nor his assessment
exercises in all those 35 years.
A. iii. Individual Responsibility:
Experimentation
These sketches/scenarios all in
one way or another exemplify situations that involve moral dilemmas
or ethical issues. Some of the cases involve pedagogic research
and some involve pedagogic experimentation with human
subjects. Some of the instances of experimentation are formal and some are informal
but all involve research and what might be seen in some fashion as experimentation
with human subjects. That some of these cases might not be commonly
regarded as cases involving experimentation and the ethical
considerations consequent thereto is evidence of the low level of
awareness of professional educators for the ethical concerns
associated with what they do and is subject matter for discussion
amongst the members of the profession. This work attempts to serve
as catalyst for the furthering of that dialogue.
Sketch /scenario # To teach
better: Ethics of research
Instructor A has been teaching
at this Midwestern college for less than a year. This instructor
has occasion to speak with a more senior colleague with some 17years
of teaching experience at the institution. The junior faculty member
inquires as to how the senior colleague presents some particular
material to the class. The senior colleague responds with:
"Well in my first years here I
simply had them read the text and then I would review it in class
and ask some questions about what they had read but after a while I
thought that did not work well at all and so I presented them with a
summary of the reading to prepare them for it and then a presented
them with some questions based on the reading that they were to
answer in writing and hand in to me before our class discussion.
That did work a little better but after two or three semesters of
doing that I made another change and I now do it this way:
I present them with a summary
of the reading to prepare them for it.
Then I present them with some
questions based on the reading that they are to answer in writing
and hand in to me before our class discussion.
Then I have them work in groups
discussing those questions to arrive at the best possible answers.
Finally, I lead the entire
class in discussion on the materials and the important issues and
have been doing it this way for over 13 years or so."
Sketch /scenario # To teach
even better: Ethics of research
Instructor confronts a
colleague concerning the use of educational technologies by asking:
" I understand that you teach
in a mode called 'hybrid". What exactly do you do." The colleague
replies with:
"to tell you the truth I have
done it for 7 semesters now and I am using my fourth model for a
hybrid class. I kept changing the instructional design until I
found one that I think works best to accomplish what I want to with
the sort of students we have here."
Sketch /scenario # To teach
even better: Ethics of research
Two instructors with roughly
the same length and type of teaching experience within the same
department have a conversation in which one says to the other:" I am
thinking of using a writing intensive mode of instruction but I have
my reservations about it. Is it really any better than what I have
been doing." The colleague replies with" Well, I tried using a
writing intensive approach in one of my classes two years ago and I
did not think it was all that much better and so I stopped doing
it.
Sketch /scenario # To teach
even better: Ethics of research
Instructor in Sociology speaks
with a fellow instructor of English at an Eastern public college. "
I am interested in developing an idea for a Learning Community with
you in which we would link our two classes pursuing some common
themes and with some common assignments for a common class of
students. " The professor of English replies with "Well, I am aware
of the college's promoting this and I am willing to give it a try in
order to see if it would be any more effective with my students than
what I have been doing."
Sketch /scenario # To teach
even better: Ethics of research
A faculty member developed a
lab manual to use with students and after doing so for three
semesters decides to revise it because the author's students
reported problems with the text and with some of the procedures that
were described within it.
Sketch /scenario # To teach
even better: Ethics of research
A faculty member decides that
the available textbooks for the course are less than effective and
so over the course of three years writes a textbook that finds a
publisher and now uses the text in classes for three semesters.
Feedback from the author's own students and from other readers comes
to the author who decides that certain portions of the text need to
be revised and then does so.
Sketch/scenario # Obligations to
inform clients: Paternalism
A new faculty member in her
first teaching job at a four-year college is unsure of the value of
informal writing assignments in her classes. She reviews the
literature on low-stakes writing assignments, and contrary to her
own educational practices, decides to implement a series of informal
written assignments in one of her two survey classes. This is her
first time implementing these sorts of assignments, and she has
graduated from an institution which has typically disparaged such
student writing as a “waste of time.”
Interested only in effective
teaching (and not future publication), she devises a survey tool
through which to judge the student reactions to her classes. While
the introductory class with no informal writing is generally well
received, she is surprised at the overwhelmingly positive support
for the low-stakes written assignments in the other class. Students
responded with comments like “I loved to be able to think through
the topic, and to put it into my own words,” “These essays really
brought the material to life for me,” and “I really felt as though I
was really learning, and not just memorizing.”
Still skeptical, she decides to
try the same approach the following semester (one introductory with
low-stakes writing, one without) to further evaluate the pedagogical
effectiveness of her classes.
Sketch/scenario # To teach
even better: Ethics of research-avoiding unnecessary harms
A faculty member learns of an
initiative at the college that is fostering the use of collaborative
teaching techniques and group learning and learning communities.
When the faculty member announces to a colleague that in the next
semester group projects and presentations will become part of the
curriculum the response is “How do you know that your students will
be up to doing that kind of work? Maybe some of them have a hard
time or even psychological problems working closely with others?”
The faculty member responds with “Well, no technique is perfect.
Perhaps I’ll have more of them learning more with this new
approach. Some of my colleagues report it is working well for
them. If a few of the students don’t adapt, well that’s just the
way it goes.”
A
teacher would not present instruction or conduct assessments through
the use of visual presentations if there were learners who were
visually challenged in the class. Doing so exposes those with
disability issues to potential harm, so teachers would avoid such
poor practice. But what if a teacher is thinking of conducting
instruction utilizing group work and collaborative learning
techniques and even peer assessments and in the class there are
persons who have psychological problems that impair their ability to
work closely with others? What are the responsibilities of
instructors prior to doing such research on new pedagogies to learn
about the group of learners/subjects so as to avoid causing them
academic and psychological harm?
Sketch /scenario # Use of Deception: Obligations to inform clients
In a
sociology class an instructor provides direction to the members of
the class in meditation. Then the instructor requests that all
the students enter into a period of meditation during which the
instructor will meditate as well. The instructor enters into
the exercise with the students with all closing their eyes as
instructed to do so. Unbeknownst to the students the
timekeeper assigned to keep open eyes and announce the end of the
meditation period was actually directed by the instructor to "keep
an eye" on the class of students and report what they were doing
while the instructor's eyes were shut. The exercise was
intended to produce experiences relating to what has been learned
about respect for authority figures and concerning group behavior.
Sketch /scenario # Use of Deception: Obligations to others beyond the client and
to society
In a
Social Psychology class students are ordered by their instructor to go out
and pretend to be disabled in some way and then board a crowded bus or
subway and ask someone seated for their seat.
B. Collective Responsibility
Sketch /scenario #
not meeting classes : Informing on the ethics or behavior of
colleagues
A professor in one department is known by colleagues both in and out
of that department to regularly (every Monday) not to meet with
classes one of three scheduled days each week. That faculty
member enters into activities on that day that are outside of
teaching and provide considerable income to that faculty member.
No colleague reports this. The chair of the department asks no
questions of the faculty member when hearing from students of the
failure to meet with class on Mondays.
Sketch /scenario # not enough time
After several years of teaching a sequence of new course in a new
program at college C the faculty who teach the new sequence in
department D come to realize that the initial time given for
instruction and lab work was insufficient to the task of providing
coverage and mastery of all the materials, concepts and for skill
development as described in the curriculum for each class.
Instructors had taken to the practice of spending two additional
hours each week with each class. These two hours each week
were not part of the teaching schedule and were not part of their
teaching load and so neither did the students have the time as part
of their basic schedule of classes nor were faculty compensated for
their time. The department was made aware of the situation.
Sketch /scenario # too poorly prepared students
Instructors in department E came to realize that they were not
covering as much material in their basic introductory level courses
as they did when those courses were first introduced into the
curriculum over 15 years before. The most popular view was
that students were not as well prepared as they once had been.
Conversations about the state of affairs amongst colleagues in the
department often included expressions of both dissatisfaction and a
wish that something could be done to facilitate coverage of the full
curriculum and student completion of objectives.
C. Institutional
Responsibility
Sketch /scenario # lack of student support services
Students at community college C are admitted to classes in the
liberal arts and sciences the without proper preparation for
the academic work involved in those classes. They are not
given sufficient or accessible student support services in terms of
their reading and writing skills or mathematical skills. They
do poorly . Instructors do not have the time to effectively
remediate those who are under prepared and consequently must assign
failing grades. There is a low retention rate for students who
are under prepared.
Sketch /scenario # combining two different
classes
A new academic program N in Department D was introduced at
college S two years before. Now as the first cohort of
students in the program progress the following situation has
resulted. There are very few students who are enrolled in N
who are registered in a class C in program N that is needed for
completion of the degree. The college wants to cancel the
class C for insufficient enrollment. The chairperson of
department D speaks with the administrators of C in order to make a
case that C should be kept open and offered regardless of the
enrollment as it was necessary to develop the program N. The
administration accepts the case but offers as a resolution that
class C would be taught by a faculty member F of D who
was in program N in the same room and at the same time that F was
scheduled to teach another class C-2. Classes C and C-2 have
different curricula.
Sketch /scenario # instructors being
assigned a subject with no background in it
Enrollment in program P offered by department D in college C have
fallen to a point where there are not sufficient sections to provide
for classes for the normal teaching load of all tenured faculty.
The department chairperson scheduled two faculty in program P to
teach classes in department D for which they had no background in
their own undergraduate and graduate programs of study. This
scheduling was accepted by the management of college C without
question.
Sketch /scenario # admitting under
qualified students into classes
In the final days of registration for the fall semester in order
to enroll as many students as possible and meet the FTE goal
that secures funding for public college P, administrators admit to
classes students who are lacking in the prerequisite skills and
background for certain classes.
Sketch /scenario # not scheduling classes
needed for graduation
Students who are officers in the student government of college C
present a petition to the president of the college asking that
classes they need to fulfill their graduation requirements not be
cancelled due to insufficient enrollment for students who are in
their final semester at the college. The president refers the
matter to the dean of instruction who informs the students that it
is not "economically feasible" for the college to offer classes with
"insufficient enrollment".
Sketch /scenario # not scheduling classes
required in the program after committing to the program (eve or
weekend)
Community college C has announced the creation of a "Weekend
College" program. The college trumpets this offering with
great fanfare. The college has informed students who "enroll"
in this program that they will fulfill all degree requirements in
four years by taking 3 classes each weekend in the fall and spring
and 2 in the summer. After four years students complain to the
dean of instruction that they are not graduating on time because the
college is not offering the remaining classes that they need to
satisfy the degree requirements on the weekend. The dean of
instruction explains that the classes are not being offered or are
being cancelled due to "insufficient enrollment". Over the next two
years nothing that is done produces and keeps classes on weekends
that are needed for those students.
Sketch /scenario # substituting a
technician for the listed instructor
In department D of College C the chairperson of D has assigned
himself a class A to teach for additional compensation.
Instead of meeting with that self assigned class A the chairperson
assigns a laboratory technician to meet with and teach the class.
Students complain to the academic provost that not only do they not
have their assigned instructor instead they have a laboratory
technician who lacks the academic credentials and experience of the
listed and assigned instructor. The Provost does nothing to
remove the technician nor to secure the participation of the
chairperson in the instruction of the class A.
Sketch /scenario # changing when classes
are offered from evening to day to suit the instructor
A new degree program N is introduced at community college C.
It is offered by department D and it is offered in the evening as it
is marketed to people who already are employed and working in allied
careers. An adjunct instructor T is assigned by the chairperson S to
coordinate the program. T teaches classes in program N.
After two semester of its introduction the program has a cohort H
proceeding through the four semester curriculum taking classes in
the evening. The chairperson of department D then assigns
faculty member F to coordinate program N in place of T. F is a
favorite of D. F prefers to work in the day and so reschedules
classes in program N for the day and offers no classes in N in the
evening. The students in H in program N are for the most part
unable to take classes during the day due to their employment.
Students in H complain to the chairperson S that there are no
classes in the evening in N and that the classes offered in the day
are cancelled due to "insufficient enrollment". S does nothing
to reschedule the classes nor to keep the under enrolled classes in
N in the day. The dean of instruction at C is made aware of
the situation but does nothing.
Rather than adding more cases to what might very well be a nearly
inexhaustible listing this work will go on to present a guide to how
ethical concerns can be confronted and moral dilemmas resolved and
professional responsibilities fulfilled in a manner that is not
beyond imagination nor impractical. After doing this,
two cases such as those listed above will be presented followed by
an analysis and suggested resolutions. The two cases will be
offered as examples of how the cases listed above might be addressed
in a manner that involves a consideration for the complex of
responsibilities involved in these cases.
@copyright 2004 by S. Kincaid and P. Pecorino
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