William Howell

EDU689 Personal Ethics & Leadership Capacity

Instructor: Shane Duncanson
March 4, 2018
 Educators are known to be faced with
a variety of dilemmas that involve
competing ethical principles.
 Occasionally, an ethical standard
clearly points to a preferred course
of action by the educator.
 More often multiple standards apply,
and these may compete with each
other, which creates a “dilemma” that
the educator must resolve. (Jacob
and Hartshorne, 2010 )
 As a middle school educator and
future math coach/administrator
bullying is a current legal issue that
has been a concern not only in my
school but in the school district as a
whole.
 Bullying is repeated aggressive
behavior that happens over time
where there is an imbalance of
strength and power leaving victim
powerless.(Espelage, & Swearer,
2003)
 Within my school, students are
constantly being bullied. Yes, as a
district we have a “zero tolerance” for
bullying but it still goes on. As the
teacher, I can make my
administrators aware of the situations
and tell them what’s going on but
there is only so much I can do.
 I am faced with the ethical dilemma
of how to push the “zero tolerance”
policy and report it to make sure that
the students get the necessary
consequence.
 In the middle school setting is where students start to experience that little taste of
freedom because they no longer have teachers taking them from class to class. This
is where many of the students get that feeling of choice and the beginning of them
making decisions for themselves.
 Middle school is where students start to see bullying in major doses. This is where
they start to hit puberty and common sense is a thing of the past. We as teachers
play a vital role during this transitioning and its up to us to minimize the
bullying.(Eyes, n.d.)
 Bullying has a negative impact on
everyone involved; the target, the bully
, the bystanders, school and community
 Bullied Students have lower academic
outcomes, attendance, and completion
rates and increased risk for anxiety
disorders, substance abuse and suicide
 Bullies tend to get into fights, vandalize
property and leave school early
 The school and community climate and
culture are negatively affected.
(Victoria, 2013)
 PROs
 Success and competitiveness
 more ideas and experiences to pull
from.
 increased adaptability,
 larger collection of skills
 better productivity
CONs
 Communication
 Resistance to change
 Successful management and
implementation of diversity
 There are no federal laws specifically
against bullying.
 State and local lawmakers have taken
action to address bullying and each
state addresses the problem differently.
 Locally “zero tolerance” is the policy.
 In Florida anti-bullying laws Cover :
 harassment, intimidation, taunting,
bullying and discrimination against:
race, color, weight, national
origin, ethnic group, religion or
religious practices, disability,
sexual orientation, gender or
sex
 Many bullying and harassment
behaviors have traditionally been
passed off as "boys will be boys" and
"girls talk a lot" or "it's just natural."
 Although common and frequent, most
low level bullying and harassment
behaviors are exhibited outside of
adult supervision or made to look
social in nature.
 Define and teach all children about bullying
 Define, teach and reward program-wide behavior expectations.
 Teach all children to identify and label inappropriate behavior
 Teach all children ways of handling big and small problems effectively
 Teach all students a “stop signal” to give when they experience problem behavior
 Teach all students what to do if someone delivers the “stop signal”
 help parents see the difference between bullying and or just being rude or mean
in little children (Sprague, n.d.)
 Espelage, D. L., & Swearer, S. M. (2003). Research on school bullying and victimization: what have we
learned and where do we go from here?. School Psychology Review, (3). 365
 Greenburg, J. (n.d.). Diversity in the workplace: benefits, challenges, and solutions. Retrieved from
http://multiculturaladvantage.com/recruit/diversity/diversity-in-the-workplace-benefits-challenges-
solutions.asp on January 8, 2017.
 Jacob, S. & Hartshorne, T. S. (2010). Ethics and law for school psychologists (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley.
 Poliner Shapiro, J., Stefkovich, J. (2016). Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying
theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas (4th ed.). Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com/
 Sprague, J. (n.d.). Bullying and Harassment in Schools What We Seem to Know, and What Can We Do.
Retrieved from http://pages.uoregon.edu/ivdb/documents/Sprague%20Bullying%20in%20Schools.pdf
on January 9, 2017.
 Stopbullying. (n.d.). Policies & laws. Retrieved from: https://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/ on Januaary
7, 2017.
 Victoria State Government. (2013). The impact of bullying. Retrieved from
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/ about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/impact.aspx on February 12,
2017.