The Education System
The education system is a community unto itself, made up of several parties and stakeholders who are all essential to the educational process. Students, educators, and parents—who are frequently referred to as guardians—make up a full educational system. These stakeholders all have various roles to perform and are held to the same moral and ethical standards. As contained in the published materials, this paper describes the duties, responsibilities, and ethics of educators—teachers, students, and parents—in the educational process.
Educators' Responsibilities
Teachers are always held to high standards because of their everyday impact on students' lives. While undertaking their responsibilities as educators, they are expected to serve as strong role models and exhibit ethical behavior as they interact with colleagues, students, parents, and others (Hill, et al., 2014).
The teachers’ primary responsibility in the process of education is to help all students learn. In addition to this role, a teachers’ professional code of ethics also requires that the teachers apply accepted moral principles in dispatching their duties. One of the major ethical responsibilities of teachers is keeping students safe. All teachers must follow all classroom and school safety procedures to ensure that students are safe (Shapiro, et al., 2016). In this regard, it is the responsibility of teachers to report instances of harassment and bullying of students. Teachers also should provide a learning environment that is free from abuse or neglect of students.
Another important role of teachers is working with students to provide them with a quality education. In this context, teachers are ethically required not to show any discrimination or favoritism against students (Hill, et al., 2014). Furthermore, the teachers should interact with students appropriately, not taking advantage of them in any way. The teachers’ professional code of ethics also requires that teachers must maintain ethical behavior in professional practice by accurately maintaining and representing qualifications, licenses, and certifications.
Students' Responsibilities
In the process of education, students are expected to conduct themselves ethical, undertaking all their responsibilities as required in their area of study. However, in some cases, students exhibit behaviors that don’t meet minimum ethical standards set by the educators and the learning institutions.
One of the most crucial ethical standards that students are expected to maintain throughout their academic career is respect. Students should treat the administrators, staff, professors, and other students with respect. This ethical standard discourages students from discriminating others in the education process by race, gender, religion, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, or other characteristics (Noddings, 2013). It is the students’ responsibility to accept diversity and respect different points of view that add to knowledge acquisition.
Another crucial ethical responsibility of students is being honest. In this regard, students should communicate truthfully with the administrators, staff, professors, and other students in all academic matters while remaining respectful. In this perspective, students must observe the education institution’s policies and regulations on academic dishonesty in completing all academic work. In compliance with this ethical standard, students must ensure that there is no element of cheating or plagiarism in all their academic work. They must understand that misrepresentation of academic information does not only harm their own reputation but also that of their classmates and the education process at large (Ennis, 2014).
Parents' Responsibilities
Parents can and do influence the occurrence of unethical behaviors among their children, who are the students. As such, the ethical behavior of students can largely be attributed to the parenting the students receive from their parents. Parents have the responsibility of strictly defining what is wrong and right for their children (Huat See, et al., 2015). They have to give the students direction on core ethical aspects such as honesty, integrity, respect, and professionalism. Some parents give their children over to the teachers and expect them to learn everything, including ethical behavior, from the education facilities. This does not work out in many cases as teachers are dealing with many diverse kinds of students and instilling ethical values in all of them might be difficult. As such, it is partly the responsibility of parents to ensure that their children ethically behave.
Other than paying all the academic fees for the students, parents also have the ethical responsibility of following up on the progress of the students. Parents need to keep track of the performance and behavior of the students throughout their entire academic career. In this way, the parents will notice any forms of underperformance or misbehavior among the students and design measures to address them.
References
Ennis, C. D. (2014). The role of students and content in teacher effectiveness. Research quarterly for exercise and sport, 85(1), 6-13.
Hill, R. P., & Rapp, J. M. (2014). Codes of ethical conduct: a bottom-up approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 123(4), 621-630.
Huat See, B., & Gorard, S. (2015). The role of parents in young people’s education—a critical review of the causal evidence. Oxford Review of Education, 41(3), 346-366.
Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Univ of California Press.
Shapiro, J. P., & Stefkovich, J. A. (2016). Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
