Hannah Day

Power and Ethics Promise

After reading the text, completing assignments, and our discussions in class, it seems
that being proactive and stating your own ethics and beliefs before issue arise is the first
thing to do as I take any leadership position. It would be a really good practice to even
write out certain situations that have up to a 50% chance of occurring including issues
with students, teachers, parents, and board members. From those What would Hannah
do, answers, should come my ethics promise to myself and my community. At the end
of the day, all decisions should be centered around what is best for the kids at our
school. My power and ethics promise is more or less to be proactive in my position, do
research ahead of time so that I can make educated decisions, and weigh out the
decision to be sure its best for the students.

Out of situations Ive dealt with in my whole life, I can come up with a small set of
example issues and responses as shown below if I were to take on the position of a
school principal:

1) Bullying:
a) Appropriate Ethical Approach: I will be sure to obtain all stories from
children involved with an equal amount of attention, care, and sensitivity. I
will be sure to put this issue at the forefront of my agenda. This can not be
put aside for anything else as it is very time sensitive and something that
can destroy our school community. I will be sure to come to a fair decision
on the matter by consulting other teachers, educational research, and my
own reflections- however handling in a timely manner.
2) Teacher Conflict:
a) Very similar to the bullying situation, I would be sure to obtain all stories
from teachers involved with the equal amount of care, attention, and
sensitivity. This, again, needs to be handled in a timely manner. As a
school principal, this would probably be something I would handle if my
department heads or grade level leaders couldnt handle it on their own.
So, the issue is probably something pretty big. I will be sure to make the
most utilitarian decision that is the greatest good for the greatest amount
of people, and also keep the circumstances as a heavy weight of the
decision. If something needs addressed with the whole staff (collaboration
practices, for example), I will be sure to give proper training it best
practices for collaborative groups to prevent these issues arising again.
Although, I will handle (again) with sensitivity so that the teachers with the
issues do not feel called out.
b) In addition to understanding the issues, the decision I make will be really
based on our school conduct guides, other administration advice- if
needed, and one that creates a productive school to best serve our kids.
3) Allocation of teachers to classes
a) Many teachers find this to be the biggest ethical issue at our school.
Whos teaching what is the most spoken phrase at OIS right now.
Department heads get to put their two-cents worth in on who they feel
should be allocated to which class, but ultimately the principals decide. If I
can truly trust my department heads, meaning our discussions of
allocations have been productive and I get a great sense that they are
making choices that are best for our students, I feel I can pretty much go
along with their decisions regardless of who might be a bit frustrated with
their allocation.
b) If Im not getting the sense that my department heads want to serve the
students first, rather save their own behinds from whiny teachers, I will be
reviewing teacher observations and experiences. I will keep in mind the
greatest outcome for our students. I dont want to hinder opportunities
(like teaching the DP course or TOK course) for my teachers, but if it
hurts the students, theres no way Ill make that decision.
4) Parent complaints about teachers or programs at school
a) Taking into consideration that parents usually are good hearted and only
mean the best for their child, I will be sure to hear out parent complaints
(unless it is a repeat about a changing policy that best benefits our kids).
Giving respect and care to the parent while hearing their issue, if
something is not immediately endangering a child, I will keep things as
they are in the classroom and look into that teachers past observations/
reviews. Possibly, a teacher had a bad day or just took extra long to grade
a paper. Parents at private schools feel entitled to complain, so these
things I need to take with a grain of salt. If, however, there seems to be an
abusive (verbal, mental, physical, etc. ) or threatening environment for the
student, I need to hear the parent fully, while getting everything in writing
and appropriately address that with the teacher. I should never feel as if
Im interrogating a teacher. I need my teachers to feel like their
administration has their back...as it should be! However, I do need to get
his/her side of the story. Depending on the severity of the situation, other
administrators will be involved in taking situation-appropriate action.