Professional Ethics encompass standards of behavior expected by professionals. There are several aspects that teachers have to take into account if they want to become ethical teachers.
These are some Ethics Case Studies in Education for you to analyze in class.
Table of Contents
Ethical Case #1
Mr. Sanchez is a new teacher, recently he was offered a position as a classic literature teacher in an institute near home.
He has a degree in teaching but he hasn’t read most of the literature covered in the program. Should he take that job?
Ethical Case#2
Mr. Daniel is a teacher with 7 years of experience, he is working for a prestigious institution in his hometown. The institution uses a method for teaching all classes, the Montessori Method of Education.
Despite trying hard to learn more about how to incorporate the method into his language classes, he has found it hard to do since the method is new to him.
Ethical Case #3
Mr. Lopez is a teacher with a good level of English proficiency and currently teaches in a bilingual high school near the beach.
In his classes, there are students who were born in the United States. Michael is doing his best to teach the advanced grammar class however students are able to recognize mistakes and errors during his explanations and teaching.
Parents are concerned that his teaching could affect student performance when they have to start their majors in a university in the United States.
Ethical Case #4
Mrs. Smith is a 52-year-old teacher. she has more than 3 decades of experience.
Recently, the Department of Education in her country decided to change the teaching methodology to avoid having teacher-centered classes.
Mrs. Smith is not open to switching the old methodology for a new one and she claims that the old methodology still works for her.
Ethical Case #5
Mrs. Daniels is a teacher of a conversational class, and as a teacher, she is expected to lead a debate with her students. A group of students suggested gay marriage as a good topic for debate.
Now Mrs. Daniel is concerned because there are students who are openly gay and other students who are religious. She doesn’t want to use that debate topic because she believes that some remarks made during the debate might hurt some people’s feelings.
Ethical Case #6
Mr. Young is an English teacher at a University. He usually teaches a pronunciation class called Pronunciation III. The syllabus suggests using Pronunciation Grammar in Use Advanced as a resource book.
At the beginning of each semester, he realizes that students don’t know the basics of English pronunciation, so he has to spend some time covering topics that were meant to be covered in previous pronunciation courses. To his disappointment, this is a recurring situation.
Ethical Case #7
Mr. Jones is a teacher of a written communication class. In these classes, students are required to write essays.
Mr. Jones finds it convenient that students write their assignments at home. Recently, he noticed that some essays have no mistakes at all and they even have a vocabulary that is out of the student’s zone of proximal development.
Ethical Case #8
Mrs. Erickson is a new teacher. Some of the groups she teaches have serious behavior problems. She doesn’t know what to do to make students behave.
She is totally discouraged by the situation and has considered quitting. When She was in the meeting room, she realized that most teachers are having similar problems with the same group.
Ethical Case #9
Mr. Meyers is a university professor, he usually teaches English classes to 18-year-old students. He feels attracted to a student who is not part of his class and the student admits feeling the same thing for him.
Since Mr. Meyers is not his teacher. He doesn’t have problems with being friends and possibly dating the student.
Ethical Case #10
Mrs. Johansen is currently a teacher in a university class. She gets along with most of the students. During one of her classes, a student decided that it would be a great idea to go on a beach trip.
Mrs. Johansen seems that taking a beach trip with her students is not a problem since they are doing it after work hours.
Ethical Case #11
Mr. S, a sixth-grade teacher, discovers that there is a Facebook group called “I hate Jesse, ” a student in his fourth-period art class. Some students at school have been joining this group and posting negative comments about Jesse.
Recently, cell phone pictures have been taken and posted of Jesse’s buttocks while she was walking in the hall. Three weeks later, he notices other pictures appearing online in which Jesse’s face has been Photoshopped onto other inappropriate images.
Ethical Case #12
Mr. Y is a new teacher in his first 90 days of employment in his district. He has made friends with many staff members and invited them to visit his social network page.
On his website, Mr. Y has listed quite a bit of personal information. One of his colleagues visited the site and became very concerned because the site included a statement that Mr. Y was attracted to young girls, stating “the younger the better.” The colleague notified the principal of this information.
Ethical Case #13
Mr. Y is a new teacher in his first 90 days of employment in his district. He has made friends with many staff members and invited them to visit his social network page. On his website, Mr. Y has listed quite a bit of personal information.
One of his colleagues visited the site and became very concerned because the site included a statement that Mr. Y was attracted to young girls, stating “the younger the better.” The colleague notified the principal of this information.
Ethical Case #14
Mr. R, a single male teacher, plays baseball on a local sports team. One Saturday evening, he was with teammates socializing and having a few drinks at a post-game barbecue at a local park.
Later in the evening, several male and female students from his 12th-grade science class arrived at the barbecue by car. They had all been drinking and continued to drink at the barbecue. As the evening progressed, a very friendly rapport developed between the teacher and the students.
