Ch. 8 What Are the Ethical and Legal Issues Facing Teachers ?

By: Leslie Valencia




Teacher's today are facing a variety of ethical and legal issues in the classroom and in the work area, but in order to face these issues correctly a teacher must be ethical in his/her teaching. There are certain characteristics of ethical teaching, 6 to be exact,and by following these characteristics, the teacher will be more equipped in responding to ethical and legal issues. Some issues a teacher might face can be ethical dilemmas in which the teacher is expected to respond ethically such as if the teacher sees a student with drugs, or if a student complains about certain behaviors another instructor might have. An instructor should show appreciation for moral diliberation, empathy, knoledge, reasoning, and also have courage to face those ethical dilemmas in a proper manner.

A legal responsibility that teachers have in addition to preventing harm to students, is to safeguard them from abuse and neglect from their parents and other adults. It is very difficult but if a teacher reports any suspicions, they can prevent greater harm to the child. This a particularly difficult issue that teachers sometimes deal with becuase it is a very delicate situation, a teacher does not have to be certain that a child is being abused before he/she makes a report to the principal. Child abuse is an area where it is much better to act and be wrong.




To protect a teacher from reaction to an incorrect report or from the anger of an offending parent, the reporting is kept confidential. Teachers are granted immunity from accusations of slander or any possible libel suit. Without this protection teachers would be more hesitant in reporting their suspicions.




Another big ethical issue is prayer and scripture in school. In the mid 20th century, religious activities such as bible reading and prayers were common in public schools. In 1963 though the Supreme Court rueld both as being unconstituional and to violate both clauses of the First Amendment. Thomas mcDaniel recommends a religious neutrality principle in the classroom and offers four guidelines for putting into practice. This principle does not exactly mean that the public school must completely ignore religion. These are some ethical and legal issues that teachers face and are facing, but yet have acces to guidelines and by following the ethical characteristics of teaching will be able to manage through.