Troy Hutchings, Ed.D.
Senior Policy Advisor, NASDTEC                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Regardless of Role

Let’s be perfectly honest. 

It’s not very often all school district employees – classified and certified –  are provided the opportunity to join together as colleagues for a day of professional learning.

Yet, that is precisely what happened.

Every person employed by the district – without regard to position, level of education, certification or salary – participated in a recent workshop on professional ethics and the Model Code of Ethics for Educators.

Teachers and administrators were present, but so were bus drivers, food service workers, custodians, maintenance workers, school receptionists, instructional aides and office personnel. The entire district hit the pause button to participate in conversations regarding professional vulnerabilities and risks. The District Superintendent was candid in his approach: “We are educators. We are all educators.”

Does our profession’s code of ethics speak to the everyday realities of attending to the physical needs of a school’s building? Or serving lunch to middle school students? Or transporting high school athletes to a competition? Would the conversations be authentic? And what about perceived barriers that may exist between roles and hierarchical structures? Just as importantly, does the topic of professional ethics have the potential to be a ‘tie that binds’? Those were some of the questions I asked myself prior to facilitating the workshop.

But it didn’t take long to discover that remarkable similarities exist across uniquely dissimilar roles.

Custodians, as well as field trip chaperones and coaches, become holders of privileged information simply by being surrounded by students outside of structured environments. Bus drivers and teachers supervise minors while simultaneously juggling myriad high-stakes responsibilities. Food service personnel and instructional assistants often interact with students informally and holistically. School receptionists, office staff and school administrators publicly represent the school’s mission amid numerous high stress competing tensions. And in a small community, where multiple relationships exist organically, there are added layers of challenge for every single employee.

Such issues engender a range of ethical considerations – regardless of role. The collective conversations on that day were rich and meaningful, and the Model Code of Ethics for Educators became a catalyst in clarifying professional responsibilities.

And that’s just the beginning.

I couldn’t help but think about the language embedded within Standard IV.B.1 of the Model Code of Ethics for Educators: “Respecting colleagues as fellow professionals and maintaining civility …” By placing the emphasis on professional alliance, Standard IV.B.1 gives priority to shared practitioner norms as opposed to focusing on differing individual or role-specific values. This distinction underscores the responsibilities which unite all schooling employees.

It is important to note the phrase respecting as fellow professionals is paired with the phrase maintaining civility. The word “civility” is derived from the Latin word ‘civis’ which means ‘citizen.’[1] Quite literally, civility applies to one who fulfills the duty of a citizen – and as employees within the schooling community, our citizenship is rooted in shared professional norms, values and responsibilities.

But there is another aspect to professional citizenship.

It was abundantly clear the workshop participants – whether they were classroom teachers, school counselors, bus drivers, district administrators or custodians – cared deeply about the local community. The ethos of professional ethics goes well beyond merely adhering to established professional norms when making decisions. It also entails a higher threshold of responsibility – our professional commitment to the welfare and betterment of the community in which we live.

All too often we attach the label ‘educator’ only to individuals who hold licenses – or at the very least work directly with students. Certainly, there may be times when such distinctions have merit.

But thanks to a thoughtful District Superintendent, we all learned a simple but illuminating truth during that workshop. Professional ethics has the potential to cultivate agency by providing all employees the opportunity to collectively shoulder the complexities inherent to the schooling community – a shared citizenship regardless of role.

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