Educational leaders are faced with legal and ethical situations that are in their school community.
Peer Response 1:
Educational leaders are faced with legal and ethical situations that are in their school community. Research shows there are ways leaders can build more ethical communities through striving for balance, setting the example of moral integrity, using data to make informed decisions, and developing an organizational culture (Ehrich et al., 2015, p. 29-32). There will always be conflicts that arise, but a school leader needs to respond effectively. School leaders need to respond thoroughly and without personal feelings and follow all state, federal and district laws/policies. How an educational leader responds and solves conflicts can directly impact the culture of their school.
Educators know that they have signed up to be lifelong learners; always learning and adapting with the times. Educational leaders are no different. They have the responsibility to learn and understand the laws and policies as they relate to their job and situations that arise in their school community. It is important that all decisions administrators make protect and nurture equity, fairness, tolerance, and respect. Educational leaders can’t rest on their laurels and must always be learning from their colleagues, other educational leaders and professional organizations. Providing not only myself but my staff with professional development on legal issues and ethical dilemmas is one way we can continue to learn and grow. It can help us continue to stay up to date on the latest laws as well. It is also important that educational leaders work collaboratively with key stakeholders when ethical or legal issues arise.
Technology has become more prevalent in recent years and has become an integral part of our society. Not only has it been introduced in education but socially it has played a major role in our students\\\’ lives. Technology does have many positives as it provides teachers and students with an incredible amount of resources, but it also has some negatives associated with it. Educators are faced with difficult situations that surround the use of technology. Social media has made ethical and legal situations more difficult to enforce. Leaders have to rely on what policies are in place to help guide them in their decision making. I do think it is also important that teachers create lessons to teach students about the laws, rules and policies associated with social media. Even though social media make is more difficult for principals to effectively manage law and policies, they need to continue to work with others to make sure they are creating a safe environment for all.
References
Ehrich, L. l., Harris, J., Klenowski, V. Smeed, J. & Ainscow, M. (2015). Ethical leadership in a time of increasing accountability. Leading & Managing, 21(1), 22–35.
Peer Response 2:
The legal and ethical dimensions of school leadership when resolving conflicts throughout the school community should always focus on student safety and academic achievement. School leaders must follow the law not only to protect the rights of their students and staff, but their own rights as well. Through research and practice we know that being an educational leader and teacher is a fundamentally moral activity (Cherkowski et al., 2015). Building and nurturing relationships is at the very center of the work we do and by creating and implementing consistent expectations for our students, staff and community will enable us to always ensure fairness when resolving conflicts.
As the school principal it is imperative to always stay current with changing laws and policies and to ensure that my teachers and staff through frequent professional development and trainings are as well. When faced with legal or ethical dilemmas, I want to be confident that I am able to assemble a well-rounded, knowledgeable team to assist in decision making. Providing proper professional development and training to all stakeholders will ensure that. Together the team and I would review current and past court cases to help establish precedence while ensuring the best interests of the school, administrative staff, teachers and students remains at the forefront of all decisions made.
Technology and the accessibility of technology and social media have a major impact on the ability to effectively manage law and policy as they relate to diverse educational settings. Technology and social media are so new their laws and policies regarding rights and safety are not always black and white. These grey areas of the law significantly impact all stakeholders. We have the ability to maintain the privacy of student data through FERPA and CIPA, both of which are federal legislation. However, our reach to protect our students and staff doesn’t go much beyond the four walls of our classrooms. We also must take into consideration the parent’s role to ensure the digital safety and welfare of their children. As educators we can help in educating our families on technology and internet safety through our Parent University programs, school social media sites, emails and letters that are sent home.
References:
Cherkowski, S., Walker, K.D., & Kutsyuruba, B. (2015). Principals’ moral agency and ethical decision-making: Towards transformational ethics. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 10(5). https://doi.org/10.22230/ijepl.2015v10n5a572Peer Response 3:
I vividly remember my interview as a new teacher. The process was nerve-racking. As Edwards (2020) claimed “Job interviews are one of those tasks in which the two competing aspects of decision making — intuition and judgment — are particularly likely to be thrown out of balance”. Well, I was definitely thrown off balance! The interview was at an elementary school and the principal asked if I preferred primary or intermediate. I froze. In my head, I was trying to figure out a way to tell her that I would take whatever grade level was available, without sounding too desperate. Apparently, I was “in my head” longer than I thought and she looked across the desk at me and said, “Primary means grades K-2 and Intermediate means grades 3-5”. I was mortified! I knew what the words meant. After that, I felt like the entire interview went downhill from there. Fortunately for me, she gave me a chance anyway and I have been at that same school for 13 years now.
Personally, it was intimidating to watch the principal take notes as she interviewed me. There were long pauses after I completed my answers as she tried to capture my answers in her notes. I think I would have been less nervous if she had recorded the audio of the interview and scored me later. However, I understand that doing that would just increase the amount of time it would take to complete interviews. As we know, time is something that educators are already fighting for. One thing that was positive about the experience was that we were sitting at a table together and many parts felt like we were just having a conversation, versus me being interviewed.
If I were the principal, I would use an interview guide specific to each job. I would also include some scenario questions to see how they would react/respond in given situations that they will likely encounter as a new teacher/employee. I would also make sure that I included the vice principal or other member of the leadership team in the interview process so that we could have a conversation after the interviews and compare scores on the interview guide.
Edwards, B. T. (2020). End the in-person job interview a virtual search process can lead to better, more equitable hiring. Chronicle of Higher Education, 5, 41.
Peer Response 4:
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