Standard 1 - Modeling Ethical and Moral Behavior

Teacher leaders model ethical and moral behavior.

As a teacher, we are tasked with helping to model responsible and ethical adult behavior. This is not something that some teachers enter the profession thinking about. That we are role models, at least to some extent, can be a daunting realization and something for which not all teachers are prepared. We have seen time and again the importance of being leaders rather than followers in education. This leadership also requires that we be examples for other teachers, not just our students.

There are many difficulties inherent in being a teacher. The environment of public schools has changed so much over the past several decades that the classroom is a place where there are many possible dangers and pitfalls that teachers must manage. As Pace (2015) stated, “the complex dynamics of teaching are shaped both by longstanding tensions inherent in classroom teaching process and the current political, social, and policy environment” (emphasis in original, p. 114). Through several of our classes, we saw examples of teachers and administrators being examples of ethical and moral behavior. We further saw this through our professors and peers as we navigated through this program.

One of the culminating projects regarding our personal ethic as teachers comes from our Moral Issues in Education class. The moral education framework we created in this class required me to really reflect on what drew me to teaching and why I remain in the classroom. This inward look resulted in my own personal realization. I know that many see teaching as a calling of sorts and believe that they have some higher purpose in being a teacher. Some would claim they have a mission to be a light to the world and that their place is in education, working with children and young adults during their most impressionable years. While I would agree that being a teacher means that we are responsible for playing a large part in a young one’s life, but I do not really believe that education is a calling, at least for me.

For me, teaching is a job, plain and simple. As I stated in my moral education framework, there are many different professions I can see myself pursuing, but there is one thing that keeps me returning to teaching. I want to affect change is my students’ lives. This change may be connected to mathematics, but also may have no relation to my content area at all. I realize this is probably not too different than what people mean when they say they have a calling to teaching, but I feel like it is different in some way. A quote from Wirzba (2016) that really struck me is, “I think it is possible to show up in a human life and not really live it at all. I mean, you can have a good life ‘on paper’, but then discover that what looks good on the page has hardly been lived from the heart and with a sense of significance of what is going on” (p. 18). For some reason, this stuck with me as something to keep in mind as a teacher. Being a teacher ‘on paper’ is something that is considered admirable by many, but if it is not something that you feel passionate about, it is going to be all for naught. You will not have the impact that most, if not all, teachers want to have.

One of the greatest ways in which I believe I can influence my students is through building relationships. I truly believe that building a strong relationship with my students will allow me to have an impact that goes far beyond the classroom. Cummins (2001, p. 1) is quoted as saying, “Human relationships are the heart of schooling. The interactions that take place between students and teachers and among students are more central to student success than any method of teaching literacy, or science, or math. When powerful relationships are established between teachers and students, these relationships frequently can transcend the economic and social disadvantages that afflict communities and schools alike in inner city and rural areas” (as cited in Shepard et al., 2012, p. 49).

Creating an environment where my students feel empowered to share their work, ask questions, to take risks, and to discuss with me the difficulties they are having is my ultimate goal. Being a trusted adult that students can turn to when they are having tough times is where I believe I can create the greatest effect and change on my students lives. In the paper I linked above, I have detailed my belief that the greatest impact teachers can have on their students is through relationships. This belief is where my moral and ethical system is rooted as an educator. There are many ways that we teachers can impact our students. Some are positive and some are negative. Some are solely content-based and some are more relationally-based. I hope that I can be, and will continually work toward being, a positive and trusted adult to whom students may turn when they are having difficulty with content or with their lives. I hope that my impact on students will be felt long after they have left my charge. And, I hope that I can live and teach as a person who does not just look good ‘on paper’, but as one who has made an impact on the lives of both my students and peers and that when I look back on my career it is one that will not have been practiced in vain.

Pace, J.L., (2015). The charged classroom: Predicaments and possibilities for democratic teaching. New York: Rutledge.

Shepard, J., Salina, C., Girtz, S., Cox, J., Davenport, N., & Hillard, T. L. (2012). Student success: Stories that inform high school change. Reclaiming Children And Youth, 21(2), 48-53.

Wirzba, N. (2016). Way of love. New York: HarperCollins.