School Leaders Offered Guidance on Ethics by Institute for Global Ethics Education Director

Jan. 17, 2012 - PRLog -- ROCKPORT, Maine – Starting this month school administrators will be given guidance and advice on how to resolve work-related ethical dilemmas by a panel of four national experts including Paula Mirk, director of education at the Institute for Global Ethics (IGE). The panel is part of a new monthly feature, the “Ethical Educator,” in School Administrator magazine. The monthly column poses real-life scenarios of ethical challenges school leaders would typically face in the normal course of their duties.

The scenario in the national publication’s January 2012 issue, for example, poses a dilemma for a superintendent of schools who is asked by the district’s athletic director to fire a popular tennis coach because she failed to disclose on her resume that she lost her previous coaching position for poor performance. (Read Ms. Mirk’s response to the dilemma: http://www.aasaconnect.com/The-Ethical-Educator)

On this new opportunity, Mirk says, “Modeling a thought process for tackling the gray areas of ethics helps others with their own tough dilemmas and daily leadership challenges.  We know that reducing complex problems to simple black-or-white alternatives can result in even more problems down the road. We’re encouraging school leadership to apply frameworks based on core ethical values, doing their best to grapple with ambiguous terrain.  We’re so pleased that AASA appreciates the importance of promoting values-based critical thinking in our nation’s educational leaders.”

Besides Ms. Mirk, the Ethical Educator panel¬¬ comprises Shelley Berman, superintendent of schools (Eugene, Oregon), Joan McRobbie, senior associate for national school reform at CTAC (San Francisco), and Roy Dexheim¬¬er, retired BOCES superintendent (Ithaca, N.Y.).

School Administrator is the publication of the American Association of School Administrators (www.aasa.org) whose 13,000 members include school leaders throughout the U.S. and abroad. The January issue of the magazine features a new design and content upgrading.

The IGE’s Ethical Literacy® Learning Community provides school community members with tools and processes to build and maintain a culture of integrity based on shared values, ethical decision-making, and research about balancing attention to academic rigor with attention to the ethical development of young people. For more information, please visit http://www.ethical-literacy.org or call +1-207-542-1546.

About the IGE
Founded in 1990, with offices in Rockport, Maine, New York City and London, the Institute for Global Ethics (www.globalethics.org) is an independent, nonsectarian, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting ethical action in a global context. IGE’s challenge is to explore the global common ground of values, elevate awareness of ethics, provide practical tools for making ethical decisions, and encourage practical action based on those decisions.