TEACHING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND ...irji.in/images/Dr. Gaurav Sachar.pdfTEACHING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY- REFORM RHETORIC V/S TEACHING REALITIES Dr. Gaurav Sachar Assistant

TEACHING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY- REFORM RHETORIC V/S TEACHING REALITIES

Dr. Gaurav SacharAssistant Professor, Department of Education, University Institute of Teachers Training and

Research (UITTR), Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Distt- Mohali.

commensurate with the nature and the breadth of the task they are to execute remains undetermined. A Teacher is faced with the dire need of application of philosophical principles, of criticism of

processes, products of learning and still be ready to discover that propositions are merely hypothetical, that complaints and queries over a belief grow into a never ending variety and that truth, the ultimate reality, is ever enchanting, to conclude is to stop, to doubt is to hope and continue to live.

The philosophy of teacher educators relates not only to the problems of the pupil entrants initially but to their educative process fundamentally. The training institutions therefore are faced with the task of pupil selection on one hand and arranging for the educators of the future educators on the one hand.

A direction to the new education that should flow such teacher training institutions is missing, the very purpose of the existence of such centers is being rightly questioned except that the justification is sought in the perpetuation of the old order.

Education is a sure process of developing the citizenry cognitively, affectively and psychomotively. The teacher is the pivot on which the educational process rests. In fact no educational system can raise educational process rests. In fact no educational system can rise beyond the quality of its teachers. This underscores the need for adequate training and constant skill development for our teachers. Teaching is a process of transferring knowledge from the teacher to the learner for the sake of changing behavior and skill acquisition. The paper is aimed at briefly examining the concept of ethics in the teaching profession and the essence of a codified ethics for teachers with a view to enhancing their professionalism and accountability keeping in view the ground realities.

ABSTRACT:The role of teachers and the

educators in the national development needs no fresh emphasis. The trio, the teacher, the education system and the society – have seldom come to terms about their respective deal –both independent and mutual. Nowhere, have the expectations been of a deeper and wider nature than in case of the teachers. Quite unconsciously the educators are made to bear the scepter of responsibility whether their beliefs and capabilities are

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KEYWORDS:

INTRODUCTION

ROLE OF A TEACHER:-

TEACHER EDUCATION:-

TEACHING PROFESSION:-

Ethics and Accountability, Reform Rhetoric, Teaching Realities, Teaching Professional.

The role of teachers and the educators in the national development needs no fresh emphasis. The trio, the teacher, the education system and the society – have seldom come to terms about their respective deal- both independent and mutual. Nowhere, have the expectations been of a deeper and wider nature than in case of the teachers. Quite unconsciously the educators are made to bear the scepter of responsibility whether their belief and capabilities are commensurate with the nature and the breadth of the task they are to execute, remains undetermined.

A teacher is supposed to deal with explanations and expositions of matter and ideas. His job is to theorize, to speculate, moralize and discover the most “general” as well as the unique causes and principles. He is conscious of the principles of human actions and conduct. He educates the nature of reality, educates values, clarifies meaning and depends largely on language and thoughts.

He is faced with the dire need of application of philosophical principles, of criticism of processes, products of learning and still be ready to discover that propositions are merely hypothetical, that complaints and queries over a belief grown into a never ending variety and that truth, the ultimate reality, is ever enchanting, to conclude is to stop, to doubt is to hope and continue to live.

Teacher education must deal with questions of who would be educators are? The process of activity to educate would be teachers include what skills, knowledge and behaviour patterns should they be expected to develop.

The philosophy of teacher educators, therefore relates not only to the problems of the pupil entrants initially but to their educative process fundamentally. The training institutions therefore are faced with the task of pupil selection on one hand and arranging for the educators of the future educators on the one hand.

It is amply clear to all concerned that the teacher education center’s in India by and large, prefer a reutilized academic program than a permissive exploratory one. Tutorial, assignment, tests and internal assignment are means to sharpen the skills of teaching. No wonder the training colleges’ smacks of traditionalism, experimentation that should be the hallmark of change is not much encouraged. A direction to the new education that should flow from such teacher training institutions is missing: the very purpose of the existence of such centres is being rightly questioned except that the justification is sought in the perpetuation of the old order.

All policy statements on the higher and technical educational system in India refer to its importance in terms of its role in providing crucial inputs to socio-economic development through creation and dissemination of knowledge and skills as also “being the ultimate guarantee of national self-reliance”. Rastogi Committee, a UGC-appointed committee headed by former Banaras Hindu University Vice-chancellor Prof. R.P. Rastogi report has also acknowledged the importance of the educational system and the teaching profession - “the higher education system has to ensure that the skills, understanding and output of the graduates and researchers they generate is equal to the best in the world”. It further opined, “Academic profession is the mother of all professions in the society”

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CODE OF ETHICS IN THE TEACHING PROFESSION:-

TEACHER’S ACCOUNTABILITY:-

Education is a sure process of developing the citizenry cognitively, affectively and psychomotively. The teacher is the pivot on which the educational process rests. In fact no educational system can rise beyond the quality of its teachers. This underscores the need for adequate training and constant skill development for our teachers. Teaching is a process of transferring knowledge from the teacher to the learner for the sake of changing behavior and skill acquisition.

The paper is aimed at briefly examining the concept of ethics in the teaching profession and the essence of a codified ethics for teachers with a view to enhancing their professionalism and accountability keeping in view the ground realities.

The teacher is a crucial facilitator of knowledge acquisition by the students. Hence they take a lot of cue from his behavior in terms of his dressing, his mannerism in speech, his attitude, and his private and social life’ patterns. This is the basic rationale for having a code of ethics in the teaching profession. The code of ethics is meant to guide teachers’ behavior and job performance. Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the theory of value. The ethics of the teaching profession are the moral beliefs and rules about right and wrongs that influence teachers behavior, attitude and ideals. In most communities, there are some known, acceptable (social) norms that appear taken for granted as ethics in teaching. These acceptable (social) norms are of two categories. First, moral ethics such as honesty, loyalty, discipline, not smoking in presence of students and in public places, not drinking alcohol in the presence of students and in public places, dressing neatly and decently to educational institutions and punctuality. Secondly work an ethics such as continuous learning, regular preparation of lesson plans, regular assessment of learners, reporting on learners, being co-operative with other teachers at work and obedience to authority. These are social norms that must be transmitted from generation to generation and the teacher being a facilitator of learning must not send a wrong signal.

The dictionary definitions of “accountability” emphasize the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s decisions and actions, and to justify them to others. The inference in the definitions is that accountability is something that is internal, that comes from within, rather than something that is externally imposed.

Parents and teachers teach their children to take responsibility for their actions in the hopes that the children will grow up to be responsible adults. Internal accountability is highly valued and identified as a hallmark of maturity in our society. The most effective and respected teachers, administrators, trustees, ministry staff, and governments are all driven by internal accountability.

Teachers value their internal accountability. Teachers, like other professionals, operate under a professional code of ethics and, hold themselves responsible for their professional decisions and actions. The amount of their own time and money that teachers spend on instructional planning and professional development is a testament to how seriously they take their professional obligations.

Given the present scenario of higher and technical education in the country, it would be nothing short of an anyone believes that all is well with our higher and technical education The Teacher Day (5th September) is celebrated by a number of Teachers’ Unions under different banners around the country expressing their discontentment against the establishments by organizing demonstrations and courting arrest.

On the other hand Government wants to get teacher’s performance evaluated and ensure accountability. Every time there is a Pay Commission or Committee, it invariably tries to award the enhanced salary with certain terms and conditions.

The recent commission is also no exception. This is done with an intention to ensure better

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qualitative changes in the higher and technical education scenario. But the irony of the situation is that revised scales of pay are implemented without much discussion on the need for Quality Assurances and the accountability of the teachers. As a result teaching profession is left without any meaningful evaluation and the concept of accountability has completely disappeared into the thin air not leaving behind even a faint fragrance. For the last three decades all the Committees and Commissions appointed to suggest reforms in higher education had recommended the regular teacher’s performance evaluation and ensuring their accountability.

In 1971, S.R. Sen Committee while recommending the higher pay scales had added the need for code of (Professional Ethics) to be made part of it. Pay scales were revised but this part could not be implemented.In 1986, National Policy of Education and also its Program of Action (POA) had recommended for “Annual Performance Appraisal” of the teachers of educational institutions.In 1987, Mehrotra Committee appointed for revision of salaries too stressed that teachers’

Performance should be evaluated by students and there should be compulsory annual submission of ‘performance appraisal’ (an assessment of the performance of teachers which would encourage their accountability).

In Dec , 1988 , the UGC issued a notification regarding ‘Accountability in Higher Education’ for all the Universities that Self Appraisal Performance of the teachers is to be made mandatory as a requirement of Career Advancement Scheme(CAS) for the award of new pay scales and be implemented within a year.Rastogi Committee (1997) which was set up to consider revision of pay-scale and service condition of all college and university teachers has recommended assessment of teachers by students, inclusion of code of conduct in the teachers’ service contract; removal of legal restrictions on teachers’ participation in elections and special facilities for women teachers. Emphasizing the need for accountability in the teaching profession, the committee has suggested “self-appraisal by teachers, assessment by students in an appropriate manner, periodic performance appraisal having regard to the number of teaching days, work-load and code of professional ethics.”In 2008 again, UGC’s latest Pay Review Committee headed by Prof.

G K Chaddha recommended “Multiple parameters like regularity in class room teaching, holding tutorials, availability to students for consultations, participating in faculty meetings, guiding and carrying out research and participating in other academic activities like seminars etc, should be taken in to consideration while assessing a teacher’s academic accountability”.

National Knowledge Commission( 2006—09), Government of India in its full Report to the Nation also clearly mentioned- Measures taken to evaluate a teacher’s performance and to promote the effectiveness of his/her teaching merit the attention of all concerned Feedback information is intended to broadly serve the following purposes1 To enable the teacher to know his/her strengths and deficiencies and use feedback information to improve his teaching and2 To give to the Head of the Department and the authorities of the Institute an indication of what the students feel about the performance of the faculty member as a teacher. It further added that in spite of inherent deficiencies, the exercise of student feedback and evaluation is an important and necessary one.

The teaching profession is profoundly unique. Let’s see how....First, teachers embrace the field of education as a calling not as a job. Let’s face it, teaching is a very

complex and demanding career that requires teachers to be managers of people, analyzers of data, and researchers of best practices and instructional methodologies-and these skills are utilized each day. In any other major profession that required the same unique qualifications, teachers would make significantly

TO ONE CAN DO WHAT WE CAN DO:-

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more money. Undoubtedly, the salaries for teachers must be reexamined and adjusted to reflect the uniqueness of the profession and provide balanced scales for all teachers, whether they work in a big city or a small town or colleges or universities, aided institutions or non aided ones, govt. or self financed.

Second, teachers must now be statisticians and researchers, fully accountable in some form or fashion for managing data in the areas of assessment, attendance, graduation rates, discipline percentages, and gifted and special education progress. The administrative responsibilities of the teacher have definitely increased, but the resources necessary to make the management of these duties efficient are minimal. The new demand for data is needed, and critical to enhancing results, but resources are likewise needed to help teachers be effective and efficient in Collecting, examining, and utilizing the data.

Third, teachers are required to be learning and behavioral’ specialists and to be able to apply differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction is a newly celebrated philosophy and a mandate for all teachers, that requires teachers to find effective teaching strategies that will meet the needs of students with different learning styles, all in the same classroom at the same time. Teachers must then, be competent and active in enlisting the unique resources and skills necessary to meet the needs of’ kinesthetic, visual, and auditory learning styles. Additionally, the special challenges of addressing emotional behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, and attention deficit problems-all in the same classroom-broaden the gap between teachers and managers. Today’s teachers are practitioners, researchers, and change agents; but, none of these unique skills are recognized or rewarded.

Fourth, continuing on the same theme, teachers must work with every student. In nearly every other profession, management is able to pick out the bad product or the poor employee so that productivity and quality can be increased. Educators do not have that same luxury. Instead, education demands that every student be given the resources and opportunity to succeed. This includes those students who truly want to learn and will become good “products” and those students who get energized from wreaking havoc and chaos in school by fighting, dealing drugs, taking part in gang activity, or constantly disrupting classes.

Instead of weeding out the bad students, educators are required to manage all situations, to provide alternatives to parents, and to some how effectively guide troubled students through the educational process. And teachers realize that they must do so, regardless of social and economic situations and, in some cases, the lack of positive parental guidance that might influence the behavior of the student What becomes most frustrating is recognizing that if these challenging students refuse the positive alternatives, they may end up dead, in jail, or: in a hospital or wallowing in a continuing cycle of poverty...No one gets into teaching to celebrate such a potential loss of lives and potential loss of lives and potential. Teachers get into the business to change and enhance lives uniquely, and one by one, as needed.

Fifth, educators are unique in that no other professional group manages so many people and is so responsible for individual progress. Teachers work with up to one hundred and eighty students or more each day and are required to ensure that each of those students succeeds academically,

Sixth, this profession requires teachers to provide effective and rigorous instruction, which will hopefully translate into providing the necessary skills and information sets so that students can be competent and professionals in the field of their choice.

Seventh and most important teachers are unique because the line of accountability in education has many levels and tangents. This accountability is not necessarily a bad thing, but it has added to the complexity of teaching. In one way or another, teachers are impacted by government, a state department of education, the local school district, and administration at their institute. What does this mean for teachers? It means that the results of classroom practices go far beyond the classroom, students, parents, and principals. I can’t name another career field that has as many accountability variables and levels as does the field of public education. Teaching, then, is a unique career that is faced with high liability and tremendous responsibility-because real’ lives are dependent on competent and professional adults. These demands are

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tremendous, and very few people can meet them successfully.

Whether we agree or disagree, teacher performance evaluation, that too by students, is likely to enter in our higher and technical education system. Not only that , whether we ask students to evaluate or not, they do evaluate the teacher right now also, though in an informal way. Therefore it would be beneficial for the teacher to see himself / herself as the student sees him / her.

However, while introducing this concept of teacher evaluation by students in the system, it is necessary to implement it in a better way taking care of it’s likely to be bad consequences. It is difficult to define good teaching in a very straight forward manner because teaching is a complex process with many variables to be covered. In this era of fast technological and other pedagogical advancements in the area of education, teacher, now-a-days, is considered as “manager of learning”. His task is to create conducive environment for student learning not to induce learning in students. Obviously, teaching is noble profession and teachers must operate with set professional standards. These set standards are prescribed in form of ethics. These ethics are derived from the recommendations of UNESCO. They in turn are the reflection of the values of the teachers and their profession.

Professional development of teachers must fulfill certain needs which must include the social need for an efficient and humane educational system capable of adaptation to evolving social needs, finding ways of helping staff to improve and encouraging teachers to have desire to live a satisfying and stimulating personal life.

1.Durosaro , I.A. and Durosaro, D.O. (1986) philosophical foundations of education. 2.College Education Books, series 1 ibadan, TOESCQ books, pp 1-48.

CONCLUSION:-

REFERENCES:-

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TEACHING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND ...irji.in/images/Dr. Gaurav Sachar.pdfTEACHING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY- REFORM RHETORIC V/S TEACHING REALITIES Dr. Gaurav Sachar Assistant

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