Institute for Global Ethics Education Director Provides Guidance for School Administrators

Paula Mirk offers insight for real-life ethical dilemma in School Administrator’s May ‘Ethical Educator’ column
 
May 16, 2012 - PRLog -- ROCKPORT, Maine – In this month’s School Administrator magazine, Paula Mirk, director of education and the Ethical Literacy® Learning Community at the Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) offers school leaders advice on how to deal with a typical ethical dilemma faced by educators. Mirk is part of a national panel of experts, who provide guidance on ethical challenges confronting school leaders, through the publication’s monthly column, the “Ethical Educator”.

The scenario posed in the publication’s May issue describes a highly-charged dilemma where a teacher’s choice to engage in an affair with a student puts a superintendent in a tough position. The superintendent must decide to let the teacher go now or delay the dismissal of the teacher for one month until the school year ends.

Applying parts of IGE’s conceptual frameworks for ethical decision making, Mirk suggests that this would be a complicated situation if the superintendent didn’t have the teacher’s confession, but weighing the facts leads to a simple response; “I would fire the teacher on the spot.” For Mirk, this scenario points to “a serious breach of trust”, and a “failure to uphold the basic responsibilities of teachers and the basic right to respect for each young person in their care.” (Mirk’s complete response can be found here.)

Besides Ms. Mirk, the Ethical Educator panel is composed of 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 (http://www.aasa.org) whose 13,000 members include school leaders throughout the U.S. and abroad.

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 and New York City, the Institute for Global Ethics (http://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.
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