Early Child Development and Care
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Added on 2021-05-30
Early Child Development and Care
Added on 2021-05-30
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Running Head: EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENTEarly Childhood Development<Name><University>
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT2Case Study Early childhood educators encounter many ethical issues in the course of their work with children and families. When faced with a challenging situation while at work, the first step is for the teacher to determine whether the situation is ethical or not. However, this at times is a difficult task. The first question you should ask yourself is, “Does it concern right and wrong, rights and responsibilities, human welfare, or individuals’ best interests?” If you answer no to each of these items, the situation is not an ethical issue and you can handle it as you would handle any workplace concern. If you answer yes to any of the items, you are facing an ethical issue. How you respond to it depends on whether it is an ethical responsibility or an ethical dilemma (APS Task Force on Ethics Education, 2012).Joe, a petite just turned three-year-old is a new student in the class. His father bringshim daily at breakfast time. The 3-year-old lives in a house together with his mother and his younger sister. He is the elder of the two siblings. His father works in the U.S. while his Filipino mother is a plain housewife. Their house is located inside a village near the school. He likes browsing the internet during his spare time. He engages in sports like basketball and martial arts. He likes the subjects Math, Arts & Music. He is amused by wrestling and never fails to watch the WWE with his favourite actors being John Cena and the Undertaker. He enjoys eating sushi and ramen and hates bitter gourd. Colours red, green, and blue are his favourites. He dislikes chaotic classmates but he is close to all the boys from his class. As required by licensing and the USDA food program, the school serves milk at breakfast and lunch. Like a number of children in the class, Joe refuses milk and drinks water instead. The class policy allows children to make this kind of choices. One day Joe’s father tells the schoolthat he and his wife do not want him to be allowed to drink water until he has drunk at least a full cup of milk. The school assures them that he will be encouraged to drink his milk.
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT3At the next meal, Joe is told that his family wants him to drink milk so he will be healthy and grow strong. Joe sobs uncontrollably. The class teacher comforts him and allows him to drink water. She tells Joe she will talk to Jane’s father about letting him drink water. Joe’s eyes grow wide, and he sobs even harder, saying, “Don’t tell Daddy! Don’t tell Daddy!” Should the class teacher honour the wishes of the family or allow Joe to continue to drink water instead of milk? Ethics in a professional context acknowledges the complexities inherent within the profession and is meant to serve as a guide in navigating a broad range of nuanced situations. As such, professionals are prepared to not only think about the critical decision points but to also discuss them within a context of a common framework of understanding. This has made ethics core to most professions. However, this does not always apply in teaching, by virtue ofthe profession educators are faced with a series of grey areas and the choices made are often subject to their values and past experiences (Goh, Yamauchi, & Ratliffe, 2012).Notions of professionalismResearch indicates that a majority of early childhood educators do not always know the difference between ethical dilemma and ethical responsibility, and they are often not sure how each should be approached (Fabiano et al., 2013). Ethical responsibilities are mandates clearly spelt out in the code of ethical conduct describing how early childhood teachers are required to act and what they must do and the kind of activities they cannot do. However, based on research majority of early childhood educators succumb to temptations to do what they perceive as easy or that, which will please others. An example of a code of ethic is Above all, we shall not harm children. We shall not participate in practices that are emotionally damaging, physically harmful, disrespectful,
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT4degrading, dangerous, exploitative, or intimidating to children. This principle has precedence over all others in this Code. The code of conduct is meant to guide the early childhood educator when making a difficult or unpopular decision as they offer backup to theuser. Ethical responsibilities are similar to legal responsibilities either in that they require or forbid a certain action to take place. In most cases, ethical responsibilities are the same to legal responsibilities (Russell, 2010). A dilemma on the other hand is a situation where there are two possible solutions to a problem and each of the solutions can be backed with moral terms. A dilemma allows the persons faced with the problem to choose between two actions both of which have benefits and associated costs. The legitimate needs and interests of an individual or group must give way to those of another individual or groups. For instance a mother who requests the teacher not to allow their child to sleep while at school for whenever she naps the child has difficulties sleeping at night often keeping her mother up late into the night which is messingher at work (APS Task Force on Ethics Education, 2012). The teacher is forced to choose between honouring the mother’s request and has detrimental effect on the child or refuses the mothers request and will have negative impacts on the mother. The ethical dilemma in this case can be described as having two rights whereby teacher can conclude that it is morally right to let the child sleep is the child so requires but it is also morally right to honour the mothers will to help her keep the child on schedule hence allowing her to function at full capacity at work (Pope, Green, Johnson, & Mitchell, 2009). An ethical issue can either be a responsibility or a dilemma and not both. Ethical dilemmas are characterized by involving deliberations. The solution to the problem can be reached quickly or resolved by simply applying rules or by relying on facts. However, dilemmas do not have clearly stated rules written in black and white. Nevertheless, the code
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