Code of ethics: Why to have one

Cloud Forest in the highlands of Malaysia - Photo by Dr. Md. Munir Hayet Khan

Code of Ethics in Education: Why to Have one?

By Prof. Jonathan AcuĂąa-Solano, M. Ed. School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Monday, April 30, 2018 Post 316

What does a code of ethics look like? If you have never come to ask this question yourself before, you are bound to find something very similar to the undergrowth that can be located in a cloud forest. Not knowing if you behave like me, I must confess that I delight my eye in seeing photographs intending to see what the one who froze this particular moment and scene in time wanted to capture. My friend Munir is that kind of person who always makes me wonder about his photography experiences and has me see other things in his pictures. I see the undergrowth in this picture of his, the undergrowth that can be present in one’s mind when we try to see how we are supposed to behave in our positions at work as faculty members or in any administrative position that can also be held. This position I am talking about should be governed by a code of ethics

grounded in the culture framework a company has devised to be current in the market.

So, going back to our starting point, the code of ethics and the undergrowth in the cloud forest, what does the institution one works for look like in one of its best days? You may often think about this, or you can simply overlook mulling over your ethical position at work. However, when you are faced with the thought of this ethical undergrowth, it looks like the chaotic beauty Munir was able to spot in this Malay cloud forest, a random array of branches covered with moss, lichens growing on the humid soil, rotten leaves covering other patches of the same soil, roots populating the surface of the forest, foggy drizzling winds, and much more. The fact is, at least for me, that many of us do not really give much thought to this thing about ethics as if this were something beyond one’s understanding or concern. It looks like we educators (or any kind of a company’s employee) do not come to think about what makes us proud to work in learning or to work for an education institution. And we seldom consider why others might trust us or want to enroll in the places we have a job at. A corporate code of ethics is not meant to resemble the cloud forest in Malaysia, but a guide that helps us monitor and measure what we do ethically to serve others.

With this desire of serving others ethically, for the Laureate Ethics Center (2018), the “spirit” of a company is found in the organization’s code of ethics. It is among the lines of this document that we workers find the driving principle that governs our labor and that encourage teaching and administrative personnel to attain institutional goals. In the Laureate’s Code of Ethics, the Laureate Ethics Center (2018) emphasizes that these guiding principles encased in a code help us “do good” (in everything we have been commissioned to do) and “be good” (in all sort of corporate affairs that can be obstructed by my personal priorities and beliefs). The chaotic and entropic arrangement of the undergrowth in the Munir’s scene captured in the Malay cloud forest is no loger a feeling of confusion towards a company’s code of ethics; it simply becomes an alluring picture depicting the beauty in Malaysia, and the code of ethics is the moral arrangement of corporate affairs and movements in the market where it operates by guiding teachers and administrative personnel to “do good” and to “be good.”

What do “be good” and “do good” mean for the employer and the employee? To begin with, these two phrases encompass the reason why a code

of ethics is needed and explained to all of us despite the business we work for.

These two phrases impact the opportunities for growth one has as part of an educational organization and within the company. In the teaching world, this may mean the potential one has to become someone else within the organization, usually with a higher rank and more ethical responsibilities. These phrases also mark us with the accountability for the consequences of our actions within an institution. Why? This happens because a well-explained code of ethics “helps us define risks and how to deal with them” [CITATION Lau18 \l 1033 ]. The code then prevents us from any wrongdoing or amoral behavior in our positions.

Is the code of ethics a practical guide to ensure one’s way of behaving at work, as an instructor or as an administrative employee? Sure! The code is a list of compliance responsibilities with the institution’s clients (being in this case students or members of the other institution’s departments), with the organization itself, and with the law. The code for any personnel is “an open, public declaration of who we are” [ CITATION Lau18 \l 1033 ]; it indicates that we are in search for the highest standards in education, that we act in accordance with integrity, and that we represent an education company being accountable for our private and public actions.

To sum up, a code of ethics in education is not a puzzling undergrowth of moral values, but a set of responsibilities we all have with our ethical beings. And what does this all entail? It all results in …

1) 2) 3) 4)

Acting in accordance to honesty, Fair and respectful treatment to peers, co-workers, and customers, Consistence of actions consonantly with the law, Readiness for the scrutiny of one’s actions through Internet-based media or any other means, 5) Harmless actions to help company’s attainment of goals, 6) The thinking of others regarding one’s decisions, and 7) Firmness of one’s acting bearing in mind one’s personal and institutional values.

This is then by far a good account of what a code of ethics is and what it entails.

As explained by the Laureate Ethics Center (2018), it also helps us focus our

minds on what is ethically correct regarding our way of acting at work, whether that is in a classroom, in a hall, in the staff’s lounge, or elsewhere.

References Laureate Ethics Center. (2018). Our Culture: The Laureate Movement. Retrieved May 29, 2018, from Laureate Ethics Center: https://laureateconsole.lrn.com