Professional Knowledge in Context:

PKIC
S0230170
Tyrone Tornabene
Due Date: 17th April 2015
Assessment Task 1
Ethical Dilemmas
Word Count: Approx 3000 without
references

Introduction
Since the dawn of mankind there have been philosophers who have battled the ethical issues
of their generation, constantly trying to define right and wrong, light and dark, good and evil.
Many of these great men and women were faced with dilemmas, where the choice wasnt so
blatantly obvious, for the world is not just filled with black and white choices; but a lot of
grey ones.
Ethical dilemmas occur when somebody has to make a choice where both actions have
equally devastating consequences (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011). It is not
necessarily in the nature of human beings to be completely light or dark. Humans are all the
shades of grey, at full brightness. This is why ethical dilemmas exist, because of the
complexity of our species and the day to day decisions we make, there is no handbook that
can guide humans in every decision.
Teaching is an essential profession to the growth of society. Teachers have a responsibility to
take part in a professional life of dignity, integrity, honesty, care and respect (GroundwaterSmith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011).
Teachers face increasing complexity in the post-modern era of education. Teaching occurs
on a political and economic playing field where the role of the classroom teacher is just one
of many that the teacher must embrace (Turney, Eltis, Towler & Wright, 1986). Teachers
must interact with all of the other stakeholders in their students lives which comes with
increasing pressure from all of them that the teacher must educate in a specific way, all of
them with varying ideas on how the teacher can best do their job (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing
& Le Cornu, 2011).
Teachers have ethical guidelines, codes of conduct, policies and rules that they must abide by
but at the same time remain fairly autonomous. These guidelines do not intend to constrict or
penalise teachers but to hold them accountable as they should, for the teaching and care of
young children is an infinitely important task (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu,
2011).
Ethics and dilemmas have become so much more important because of our change in society
because when society gets given a voice, they speak out and every individual who speaks has
a different perspective and a different view of a situation.
Berlak and Berlaks (1981) study in British classrooms in the early 1980s had moved
teachers to recognize that schooling has many conflicting values and problems that cannot
be solved by the one correct solution in every situation.
Teachers who act as professionals must have a sense of professional identity by updating
their practice, critically reflect about ethical practices, expand their knowledge base in
teaching and be consistent advocates for their students and their own profession
(Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011).
This task is analysing and evaluating an ethical dilemma described by a teacher through the
Ethical Response Cycle (ERC), indicating to relevant policy and laws, defining the dilemma
and analysing all of the stakeholders which may have affected the choice made. An interview
was conducted (Appendix A) which will be referred to throughout this essay.

Part B
The ethical dilemma that will be analysed in this essay came from a Prep teacher named
Sandy. She had a child with special needs named Mike in her class who refused to go out at
lunch times because he was afraid of the teacher on duty. Mike would argue with Sandy
every lunch break if she tried to send him out to eat with the other children. Sandy then had to
choose to confront Emily, the teacher on duty that Mike had trouble with and then have to
fight the same battle every day to force him out of the classroom or just keep Mike in the
classroom for the ten minutes of eating time before he went out to play but technically put
him at risk.
Berlak Dilemmas
The Berlak dillemas (1981) organizes ethical dilemmas into three sets: control, curriculum or
societal. The ethical dilemma mentioned above fits into the societal set of equal justice versus
the teachers application of rules (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011).
Sandy chooses not to equate under equal justice because fairness is not always about
making everyone do the same thing, as proven through differentiation within curriculum. She
chooses to make an exemption for Mike in eating times for the sake of his own comfort and
wellbeing. Differentiation needs to occur often in societal expectations as well (GroundwaterSmith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011).
Teachers must examine the causes of social difference, geographical and cultural significance
and the political implications of economic allocation of resources to education and merge
these complex understandings to increase professional practice. Economic forces want
teachers to treat students as objects to collected and treasured and redistribute their
knowledge for the good of the country (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011).
Philosophy helps teachers to redefine students but at the same time to not define them at all
(Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011). Teachers must compete with all of these
forces while never forgetting one very important thing; children are human beings and not
objects.
Education is a means to push the world forwards, to keep the youth moving forwards,
eternally charging. The Australian national emblem itself is designed of two animals that
cannot walk backwards. The scientific revolution changed the dynamics and pushed
medicine, agriculture, transportation, technology and philosophy forward but somehow
missed education, leaving teachers to deal with children of the 21st century using 20th century
educational methods (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011).
If this dilemma were to occur in the early 1900s or even as close as the 1960s and 1970s,
the choice would not be a dilemma to the teacher but a clear-cut rule. Emily and her clear
lack of patience for Mike would be noted as oh hes just one of the naughty kids without
any real understanding of the reasons for his behaviour. History has brought all students
together, to learn together but to still learn in completely varying ways specific to best help
them (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011).
Brokerage

Brokerage is a battle between policy and practice where the system fights the teacher for
control of what occurs within the classroom (Harreveld, 2002). Through brokerage, the
power of the system is disrupted and re-routes the power through other individuals or groups
within the community (Harreveld, 2002).
Teachers often broker curriculum to suit the needs of their students to a degree that they can
achieve success and learn effectively (Harreveld, 2002). Teachers mostly engage and work
around systems through cover stories (Harreveld, 2002).
Discursive Dissonance
Discourses can arise from various parts of a teachers life and determining the dominant
discourse can be a difficult and ethical decision to make. Dominating one discourse over
another is determined through social, cultural, historical, economical and technological views
and beliefs, often resulting in what is known as discursive dissonance (Harreveld, 2002).
Discursive dissonance is the tensions that can rise for teachers between what the system or
employers want from them and what the students need from them (Harreveld, 2002). Sandy
fought discursive dissonance with her discourse towards the system of the school and her
discourse towards the children, bred on her own beliefs of care and empathy. Sandys
primary discourse remained towards the care of the student, which she chose over her
secondary discourse of the systems and policies of the school.
Identity
Professionalism as a teacher is not defined by simply following a procedure. Creating a
professional identity is important because personal beliefs and values do influence the
choices that teachers make in ethical decision making (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le
Cornu, 2011).
Sacred, Secret and Cover Stories
Often teachers must view situations with double vision, looking at the dilemma from the eyes
of the individual educator and the institutional interests of the school and must identify with
both (Danaher, 2002).The sacred story of the school that Sandy was placed at would be that
the safety of the children must come before everything and that excluding children with
special needs from eating times would be a breach of inclusiveness.
While Sandy worked with this story, her cover story was that he remained within the safety
of the teacher on duty, as they were just outside of the classroom watching students eat. She
justified her cover story with the code of conduct and code of ethics for teachers, stating what
she was acting with dignity, respect and care for her student by not forcing him into an
environment that he did not feel secure.
Teachers often appear as double agents, where they appear to be providing the regulations
that make the administration happy but are secretly providing proper wellbeing and education
suitable for their students (Danaher et al., 2002). The secret story for Sandy would be that
Mike was genuinely afraid and disliked the teacher on duty immensely, meaning that she
took precautions to ensure he felt safe and secure, even if it was outside the bounds of the
school policies.

Epistemology
Knowledge was once defined by society as how much students could remember and recall on
paper in standardized tests where the teacher taught to the test and that was it. Instead, it is
more important now to be critically literate and learn to evaluate what is learnt and work on
creating new knowledge from there.
Remembering quickly went from the highest pillar of thinking to the lowest in Blooms
Revised Taxonomy (1990), as a scale was created where remembering and understanding
were low but evaluating and creating were the highest.
Funnelling
The government has a tendency to bring together a group of educated individuals, create a
range of policies and then just drop them into a funnel without consideration as to how the
teachers will implement these policies in the classroom (Connelly, 1995).
Pushing so many policies through a funnel forces teachers to sift and sort through them,
deciding which they can implement and those that they simply do not have time for. There
were school-level policies pushed into Sandys hands in her classroom but she had to make
selective choices for what best suited her student. What is best for the policy creators, which
is often to protect the school and government from legal issues is not always what is best for
the child.
Industrialism
The globalisation of the world make connecting with other nationalities much easier than
before and required interaction and knowledge of other countries necessary. Education is now
provided for a workforce which is no longer just national but international. Relations with
connecting nations is important to keep and providing for an increasing multicultural country
such as Australia, forces us to reassume the national identity as simply more than just a
British colony. The cultural make up of Australia is vast and spans cultures all over the
world.
Industrialism pushed education away from only the rich and towards the public, where all
students were quickly encouraged to educate themselves, creating the first generation of wellinformed individuals who were given similar opportunities to those in high places.
Postmodernism
Postmodernism describes contemporary life in which contradictions and juxtapositions are
faced daily (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2011). Contradictory tendencies such
as globalisation and nationalism affect the school level as well. Most information flowing
through schools funnels through a global discourse and is then changed to suit the national
expectations.

Part C
Step 1: Identify the Dilemma
Newman and Pollnitz (2002) state that ethical solutions should be regarded as being wise,
and arrived at on the basis of sound knowledge and thoughtful reasoning. The societal
dilemma will be analysed through the Ethical Response Cycle (ERC) to determine how the
teachers choices match up against the ERC.
Step 2: Legal Aspects
Fitzroy Legal Services (2015) defines duty of care is defined as an obligation, recognised by
law, to avoid conduct fraught with unreasonable risk of danger to others. Sandy did not
choose to neglect her duty of care as defined by the Wrongs Act (1958) towards Mike as the
teacher on duty was just outside of the room and she did not break any laws of negligence
towards the safety of her students.
Reporting a child at risk by the Student Protection (2015) occurs when it is suspected that a
child is at harm or at risk of harm. Mike was not at harm as he was alone in the classroom
with the teacher on duty just outside, nor was he at risk of harm due the proximity of the duty
of care teacher and the other students. All students had to enter that classroom that Mike took
vacancy to go to the toilets anyway and thus it was defined as a safe environment within the
school.
However, the teacher on duty (Emily) had no knowledge that Mike was in there which could
affect her duty of care towards the child and her ability to keep him safe from potential harm.
Mike did not have any medical issues that Sandy was aware of, nor was he so far away that
he could not call for help if he needed it. As the Child Protection Act (1999) was created to
protect students from harm, the other teacher, Emily could have referred there and other
relevant policies before seeking out mediation via administration.
Step 3: Professional Consideration
Sandy demonstrated professional consideration through the Queensland College of Teachers
(QCT, 2014) Code of Ethics in care and dignity. She engaged in professional judgement by
weighing both consequences before making a choice and showing empathy towards Mike in
her practice. Dignity was demonstrated through Sandy valuing diversity and the special needs
of Mike by acting with care and compassion and attending to his unique needs (QCT, 2014).
Standard 7.1 states that teachers meet professional ethics and responsibilities which Sandy
showed through her ethical response to her dilemma by analysing various documents such as
the code of ethics and being able to justify her thinking (AITSL, 2011). Sandy did not
however, comply with administrational and organisational requirements at the school level
and instead chose to value her professional beliefs and values over the policies of the school
(AITSL, 2011).
Step 4 and 5: Ethical Principles and Theory
Sandy employed the ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence. She compared the
potential harm that the situation might cause to the potential good and made a decision based

on the idea that Mike staying inside would benefit him more than it would hurt him,
exemplifying her trait of nomaleficence (Newman & Pollnitz, 2002). Beneficence was shown
when Sandy decided that the health and wellbeing of Mike was more important than
following the policy of the school (Newman & Pollnitz, 2002).
Sandy also adhered slightly to the ethical principle of autonomy, of the right to make her own
choices by choosing to ignore the policies and do what was best for the child. She could have
however, in her autonomous action, taken it upon herself to inform the teacher on duty about
the whereabouts of Mike to ensure the rights of the child were being protected at all times
(Newman & Pollnitz, 2002).
Sandy clearly identifies herself as taking a care-based approach to teaching, where in
Appendix A, she stated that her thinking behind her ethical choice was to put the happiness
and wellbeing of the child before the policies and rules of the school (Newman & Pollnitz,
2002). She demonstrates a subjectivist ethical foundation, making judgements based on the
situation at hand, regardless of what the rules state and clearly noted in Appendix A that no
rule base could define all situations for teachers.
Sandy shows traits of an activist professional, choosing to make things happen by helping her
student rather than letting Mike suffer in silence. In her decision, she took a risk which led to
her transfer but like any form of action it took conviction and strategy, the traits of an activist
professional (Sachs, 2001). Her decision took into account the maintenance of a continued
rapport with the child as she did not wish to battle every day with him over such a trivial
issue (Newman & Pollnitz, 2002).
Step 6: Informed Inclination
Sandys dilemma was resolved when mediation occurred at the school due to Emily reporting
her for putting a child at risk. In doing so, Sandy had to force Mike out of her classroom for
eating times which distressed him greatly. There was also a choice of one of the two teachers
having to leave and Sandy ended up getting transferred to another school voluntarily.
Sandy acted as an autonomous professional who was in a disposition to act in a way she
believed was ethical in regards to the childs wellbeing. She was an experienced teacher at
the time and had many years to develop her autonomy and philosophy about caring for
children to understand that in the profession of teaching she is capable of making decisions
like that but must also be responsible for the fallout.
Step 7: Negotiation/Judgement/Action/Documentation
Sandy brokered with her student Mike and even though the system and policy would have
asked that Mike be placed with all of the other children. She modified his eating times to
make it a more comforting and happy time of day for him without having to deal with the
anxiety and fear that he would usually endure during such times.
Sandy could justify her brokerage as under the code of ethics for Queensland College of
Teachers (2014) as demonstrating care and dignity towards her students through
acknowledging uniqueness and committing to students wellbeing.

Negotiation would have been a reasonable part of the ERC for Sandy and Emily to realize
that they do not fully understand the situation on either end to make judgements about each
other.
Both stakeholders proved to have extremely opposing professional identities. While Sandy
had a care-based activist identity, Emily had a rule-based belief system and acted on it.
Emilys judgement and action would have been based on following the rules at all times,
regardless of the situation (Newman & Pollnitz, 2002).
Sandy did not document her ethical dilemma but it was most likely documented by the
administration staff when mediation occurred. She could have kept notes throughout the
ordeal to better justify her decisions.
Sandys judgement eventually lead to her voluntary transfer from the school and it is unclear
if policy was modified or changed to suit students with special needs. The various
stakeholders such as Sandy, Emily and Mike prove it was a dilemma because as Sandy stated
in Appendix A, in teaching we deal with human beings and there are just too many variables
for there to be one correct course of action.
For the needs of the students, the resolution of transferring a teacher could instead have been
resolved by changing policy to better accommodate children with special needs. It could have
be resolved at much earlier stages if Sandy had followed the ERC and negotiated early.
Conclusion
Despite the various controlling systems involved in the teaching profession, teachers will
always develop personal beliefs and values that they hold onto until the very end and their
ethical decisions will be based on these (Newman & Pollnitz, 2002). Teachers can find ways
to balance personal beliefs, professional knowledge and student needs through the use of the
ERC to respond to ethical dilemmas with logic rather than emotion. Considering all of the
aspects of the ERC in any ethical dilemma will enable a teacher to feel ethically responsible,
knowing that they have considered all of the variables possible before taking action and then
being able to reflect upon it afterwards to improve their future practice (Newman & Pollnitz,
2002).

Appendix A
Transcript of Interview
For the sake of this interview we will call the teacher Sandy, the child involved Mike
and the other teacher Emily.
What is your job or role in this establishment?
Year 1 registered teacher. In context of dilemma, Sandy was a prep teacher then.
Can you recall an incident that happened in the workplace that led you to have to make a
difficult choice between two alternatives at some stage, where you had to make an ethical
choice?
Yes.
Difficult special needs child in a prep classroom. He disliked the teacher on eating
duty and opt to stay in the classroom while all the other prep children ate just outside
of the room.
She had to make a choice between a) telling the teacher on duty and having Mike get
upset every lunch break or b) not telling her and keeping him in the room, while
technically putting him at risk. She decided not to tell her due to the childs dislike.
Didnt tell the teacher on duty that he was in there because she assumed that the duty
eating area included the toilets (which were in her classroom).
Teacher took offense at that and went to the deputy and said that put the child at risk.
School had to decide whether to keep the teacher at the school or not. She decided to
transfer.
The stakeholder involved in the incident were?
Admin, both teachers and mediation.
What thinking was behind your choice?
Mike was a child that was quite resistant to everything. You had to choose the battles
with him and couldnt fight him with everything. She believed he was quite safe, still
within a school environment. His pattern had been would be that he would always eat
his lunch then go out to play.
Sandy didnt see the point in fighting him to force him to go out there. Wouldve
spent the ten minutes of eating time every day having that argument with Mike.
How was the dilemma resolved?
Emily reported this at risk child to admin, there was mediation involved and Sandy
ended up being transferred.
Special needs committee were involved. Some days he would go out but if he
wouldnt she had to tell the teacher aide that he was in the room to make them aware.
Do you have many dilemmas like that in your everyday work life?
No very rare.
Where can you look for guidance for answers when making difficult decisions?
Code of conduct, student protection always the principle or the deputy always go
to them admin staff. Other colleagues.
In the situation of Sandys dilemma however, she wasnt allowed to discuss it with
other staff in case it divided the staff against each other.
Do you think it would ever be possible to provide teachers with a book, rule or policy to the
answers to all dilemmas that arrive in the workplace?
Sandy said no because we deal with human beings and there are just too many
variables.

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