Ethics and Confidentiality Statement

Ethics and Confidentiality Statement

English Education Program

Michigan State University

Statement of Principles:

Teaching, as one of the helping professions, involves working with a vulnerable population (minors) within the semi-private space of the classroom. It is not a public space: laws exist to prevent schools from giving out information about students without family permission, and researchers must get permission to collect observations and protect the confidentiality of those they study. However, because teaching and learning takes place in fairly large groups within large institutions, it is sometimes easy to forget this is not a public space. Teachers, like nurses, doctors, social workers, etc. are expected not to share details of their students’ academic or personal lives outside the school building. Moreover, because of the nature of discussions in English classrooms, where students are invited to make connections between their personal lives and the content, and where writing assignments often enter private territory, these principles are especially important for English teachers. English teachers must explicitly resolve to maintain confidentiality.

In the case of Michigan State teacher candidates, there are two spaces to protect. One is the placement classroom, where the teacher and the students have welcomed you in as both teacher and learner. The other is the methods classroom (including auxiliary online spaces). Here you may see fellow teacher candidates struggle with their new role, class discussions reference what happened in a placement classroom, and course assignments analyze the teaching moves of others. Here, also, confidentiality must be protected. The following policies work towards that goal.

In order to protect confidentiality in the K-12 classroom:

·  Don’t tell tales out of school. Friends and family will want to hear stories about what it’s really like: speak in generalities, and not in a way that could identify schools or individuals, especially students.

·  If you are concerned about something that is happening in your placement, such as a student, an event, or a practice, talk with your mentor about it first. They can usually help you understand what is going on, and why things are done a certain way. When this strategy does not take care of the problem, talk with your field instructor (if an intern) or your seminar instructor about your concerns.

·  In the school environment, there are channels for dealing with concerns about a student, and your mentor can direct you to them. Sometimes you contact the parents, or the student’s counselor or another adult friend of the student’s in the building. You should not gossip about individual students in the teachers’ lounge, with other students, or with people in the community.

·  When writing about your placement for an assignment that asks you to draw on your teaching or your observations, use pseudonyms for schools and personnel to protect the identity of individuals. When analyzing student work for an assignment, hide the real name of the student. Protect work of yours that refers to other people – do not post it on your wiki or leave folders sitting around in the classroom where other students can read it.

·  Video is a special case, because identities cannot be hidden by changing a name. Find out what the school or district rules are about videorecording your teaching for your own learning or assignments. Districts vary: some just have parents sign a blanket permission at the beginning of each year (in which case you need to find out who in your class cannot appear on video). Where you tape yourself to share with an MSU inquiry group, even though the sites are private, we have you collect permissions from parents. Never post that great teaching moment or that hilarious prank on You-Tube or Teacher-Tube.

·  TE seminars (senior and intern) are a place to talk about what we see in schools to learn from each other. This is also a protected space. However, there is no need to mention teachers or students by name when discussing a concern.

·  The same rules for confidentiality in talk and writing follow in social networking sites. Do not post student work or stories about your students on public or protected sites. ANGEL and MSU wikis are password-protected private sites, but still use pseudonyms or avoid names and places.

·  If you set up a blog or a wiki for your classroom or project, know what the privacy settings are and what they mean. Remember: If anyone can see it, then it can be searched by a search engine. Do not use a public or protected wiki for student journals or writing of a personal nature. If you do want to set up a wiki as a public showcase for student work or opinions, they and their parents need to know that this material can be seen by anyone. It is your responsibility to see that a student does not post material on your wiki that endangers their or another student’s confidentiality or reputation. Teach your students to respect such boundaries.

·  In relation to this last point, ask your mentor teacher about building or district policies about posting things online. It may be that combinations of firewalls and school attitudes will mean you have to revise your idea to meet the expectations of this context.

In order to protect confidentiality in the MSU classroom:

·  We work collaboratively in order to prepare you to work as members of a faculty and of a department. This means you have privileged information about the content and quality of each others’ work, work habits, school experiences, etc. Do not talk about these things with others outside of class.

·  People talk about things that happen in K-12 classrooms in seminar, and you know where your colleagues are placed. Keep their confidence (see rules for protecting K-12 confidentiality).

·  Remember that you are entering a profession where (fairly or not) teachers are held to a higher standard than other adults in their community. Do not run the risk of hurting a classmate’s future prospects by telling stories about things they’ve said and done. You never know what surprising contacts people you talk to may have in the educational community.

·  When setting up a social networking site to share your teacher identity (posting your teaching philosophy, resume, samples of your planning, great assignments, etc.), remember to respect the principles above, and do keep it all about you.