Proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje en la UCC

NSW Department of Education’s employee guide, Pathways to Ethical Decision Making (2010), which I discussed earlier in Professional Practice Initiative 1 – The Ethical Decision Making Toolkit. The guide outlined the ethical framework that had been

constructed to provide guidance to departmental employees in making decisions relating to policy and procedures. The Pathways to Ethical Decision Making framework, which consisted of five questions, was available to departmental employees online and was created originally by the NSW Department of Education’s Audit Directorate, as part of its risk management procedures.

From interviews carried out during the delivery of the Ethical Decision Making Course, course participants recognised the value of using the framework as a scaffold in their decision making. Anna, an experienced primary school principal, commented:

it provides you with some structure. It enables you to consider things that you might not necessarily consider if you’re working under a lot pressure … That scaffold, it is really all about … self-examination. It is about reflection (Transcript, WS750043, p. 3).

Riannan, a deputy principal, saw the framework as assisting her thinking and reflection, describing it in terms of ‘it sort of re-jigs your memory… so it actually makes you think it through’ (Transcript, WS750048, p. 4). Sally, a new relieving principal, commented that the framework allowed her to take decisions ‘away from the personal’, which made the decision making easier as ‘you’re not thinking, am I going to upset this person?’ (Transcript, WS750049, p. 4).

The intention of the Ethical Decision Making Course for School Leaders was to explore how professional learning in ethical decision making could support school leaders in building the capacity of schools to deal effectively with ethical dilemmas. The focus was one of shared reflection, cooperative practice and collegial discussion. In framing a course for departmental employees, it was important to recognise and use ethical frameworks that had been created by the public sector employer to guide the decision making of employees. At a time of major generational change and moves towards greater localised decision making within all public schools in New South Wales, it was important to ensure that new leaders and future leaders had an understanding of these ethical frameworks and their appropriate use.

Throughout the Ethical Decision Making Course, as the facilitator I continuously

challenged course participants exploring authentic work-related scenarios with the simple question: What would the person sitting on their front verandah down the street think of this decision? My question was a reshaping of a frame from the NSW Department of Education’s Pathways to Ethical Decision Making. Question five from the framework asked decision makers: ‘Can it withstand public scrutiny?’. Public scrutiny is an invaluable concept to explore in a group discussion about ethical practice and especially a discussion that also considers the concept of ‘conflict of interest’ and whether this is ‘perceived’ or ‘actual’.

The concept of public scrutiny relates to many significant areas of policy implementation for all school leaders, especially the procedures relating to local and non-local enrolments. For this reason, I created a scenario where a student had appealed a non-local enrolment determination on the grounds that he lived one house outside the enrolment boundary that had been drawn for the local school. In framing responses to the issues and dilemmas

which were being explored, I sought to develop for all participants a sense of viewing complex matters from more than one perspective. The facilitation and reflection process allowed course participants to develop at times multiple ethical perspectives that were strategic, involved reflection and were framed not just through their own eyes.

It was important when I designed the course to consider adult-learning principles and the ways in which I could engage learners by building effective links between the theoretical dimensions of an issue and the practical implications of a school context. The nature of the professional working relationship between colleagues, the building of trust, the sharing of ideas, consideration of alternative points of view, active listening and the growth of

reflective practice in a workplace context were all integral to the design. At a time of major educational reform and significant movement within the ranks of principals, these skills and attributes assumed greater relevance. For this reason, I was intrigued by research that advocated for a new discourse to be constructed in a workplace through group reflection. Boud, Cressey and Docherty use the term ‘productive reflection’ to argue for the

application of group reflection to build organisational capacity at times of significant change which necessitated new flexible thinking (2006, p. 4). This research has valuable application for schools that employ teams and committee structures to develop policy and procedures in an era of heightened local decision making.

As previously noted the intention of the Ethical Decision Making Course for School Leaders was to create a series of professional practice scenarios that would involve all course participants in shared conversations, problem solving and reflections on their current professional practice, utilising ethical frameworks to guide their decision making. The consideration of alternative points of view and the nature of the shared decision- making process are integral to the success of the course design. In keeping with the

critical-enquiry model which I adopted, listening, personal reflection and shared reflection are all key attributes required of participants.

Research on ‘creative learning conversations’ became a strong pedagogical framework around which I had woven the professional learning contained in the course.