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Joe Jamieson’s speech at NASDTEC June 9th, 2015
It is an incredible honour to be chosen as the 2015 recipient of the Doug Bates Award. I am humbled and filled with thanks to the selection team on the Professional Practices Committee for both the nomination and acceptance of me for this award.
I usually do not script my talks. I much prefer to use a mind map to navigate my thoughts. This time however, I will stick to the written text for three reasons: One, expediency – you have a meal to tuck into; two, the text will live on NASDTEC’s website; and three,as the first Canadian to receive the award, I can purposefully omit repetitive uses of the word “eh? “
NASDTEC – the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification – is an exceptional organization. I first connected with NASDTEC in June 2009 when I attended my first professional practices institute in Jacksonville, Florida. Immediately, I found a community of colleagues who were and are deeply devoted to the work of furthering knowledge and public service. It is a community that comforts, inspires and challenges. Without equivocation, I can say that NASDTEC has been one of the most significant factors in my professional growth over the last seven years.
In the brief time that I have with you today, I’d like to frame my remarks around the ethical standards for the teaching profession in Ontario. It’s a jurisdiction in which I’m proud to say that I am certified to teach. It is also the only province in Canada that has a self-regulatory body for teaching. It’s that body – the Ontario College of Teachers – that I serve as Deputy Registrar and that I’m proud to say has established ethical standards of care, trust, respect and integrity for teaching.
Simple yet complex, these standards align perfectly with NASDTEC’s work and its people.
I don’t think any of us get into teaching for its lavish lifestyle, perks, benefits or social adoration. At the root of the choice to teach is a deep reservoir of caring. Education has a unique place in society as an equalizer. It also has tremendous power to transform.
But what does caring look like in the schools of 2015? Is it a face-to-face endeavor only? Does it even exist in the virtual world? Furthermore, how does pop culture reflect what a caring teacher looks like? Is it Mr. Shue from the hit and now-defunct television series Glee?
For me, caring is about modeling and margins.
Students have an innate capacity to detect and intercept hypocrisy. What isn’t called out in the breathing world is called out in the virtual world. Enter Twitter and Snapchat. As soon as they sniff insincerity, students are apt to pounce and post.
The point is, is that if I espouse caring as an ethic in teaching, I have to walk the talk.
Our standard of care in Ontario is defined by:
Compassion. Acceptance. Interest and insight for developing students' potential.
Teachers express their commitment to students' well-being and learning through positive influence, professional judgment and empathy in practice.
Now back to Glee and Mr Shue. Most jurisdictions would have him before a discipline hearing after each episode based on his interactions with students. It’s unfortunate because these types of pop culture examples create false expectations within the community of what caring really looks like and they put teachers in awkward positions. Frankly, I don’t envy them having to make multiple ethical decisions each day. Thankfully, NASDTEC is developing a Model Code of Ethics as a tool to address these very questions. I congratulate the team that has envisioned and created this legacy.
Trust is another fundamental precept of professionalism. My organization exists because the government trusts Ontario’s teaching profession to be able to self-regulate. Why? Because it is a profession that is mature. It has a defined skill set and knowledge base. And it is capable of governing itself by setting ethical standards, standards of practice, overseeing teacher licensing, accrediting initial teacher education programs and additional qualification courses, and managing the relatively rare instances of professional misconduct.
Self-regulation is a privilege ensconced and protected in law. The government – or the people – grant that privilege. The government can also remove it.
Trust must be earned and re-earned. Teachers earn the trust of students, their parents and guardians, and their professional colleagues. Schools earn the trust of parents and their communities. District school boards earn the trust of parents, their communities, the government and the media.
Public confidence in public education comes from a foundation of trust. It embodies fairness, openness and honesty. Our members’ professional relationships with students, colleagues, parents, guardians and the public are based on trust.
Trust and fair-mindedness are closely linked to our third ethical standard – respect.
Our members honour human dignity, emotional wellness and cognitive development. In their professional practice, they model respect for spiritual and cultural values, social justice, confidentiality, freedom, democracy and the environment.
For most in NASDTEC’s professional practices group, an area of focus is the investigation, prosecution and discipline of members of the teaching profession. At first glance, it would seem to be an area that is quite clear cut: if you commit actions that are unacceptable, you are no longer welcome in the profession. That’s the easy approach. However, over the years with NASDTEC, I’ve witnessed a deep commitment to the ethic of respect in this area.
Respect is articulated by acknowledging the complexity of the human condition, regardless of the depth of distain that we might possess for the actions of an individual. Instead of writing off those who stray from the rightful expectations of the profession of acceptable conduct, instead of creating distance from the “other” and automatically and arbitrarily castigating them, (which is the easy route to take), the professional practices group has been committed to looking deeper at the roots of the issues and teacher behaviors.
Teachers are complex, intricate and vulnerable. The intersections of minds and souls, the intensity of time and the innate societal expectation of the teacher as the “fixer “of a multitude of ills makes ethical considerations, relationships and teacher behaviors complex.
In NASDTEC, I have witnessed a community of professionals who apply the ethic of respect to teacher conduct issues as a spirit of understanding to discover, when possible, the capacity for correction.
Is it true that a teacher who brings harm to a student needs to be held accountable and sanctioned in the public interest? Absolutely.
Is it true that this process can occur in a manner that is not about vilification but justice, about rehabilitation, the maintenance of dignity and that is rooted in respect? Absolutely.
It is easy for us to exercise respect to those we like and agree with. The true test of this ethic is to oppose, prosecute or disagree with someone, and yet, still act with respect. Not an easy task, yet I see this applied over and over again within NASDTEC.
Finally, we come to the ethical standard of Integrity.
In Ontario, we have defined integrity as:
Honesty, reliability and moral action. We believe that continual reflection helps members to exercise integrity in their professional commitments and responsibilities.
In his play¸ A Man for All Seasons, playwright Robert Bolt tells of the life story of Sir Thomas More. Thomas was faced with the ultimate test of his integrity. His life depended on him taking an oath that would attest to the validity of the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, which he refused to do and for which he was consequently executed. Thomas rooted himself with the deep anchor of his integrity – an anchor that we all possess that roots us in our daily lives. Thomas is known to have said in the early 1500s, “above all, we must be men of integrity.” But the principle remains valid and timely today.
NASDTEC has been a community that has welcomed me to live with full integrity. Let me explain.
One of the most difficult times in my professional life was in my early years as a Grade 7 and 8 teacher. The difficulty had nothing to do with classroom management, assessments, report cards or all of the other typical challenges a new teacher faces. For me, it was negotiating how to live with integrity each day for my students while remaining deep in the closest as a gay man out of my own fear and acquired shame.
I believe to my core that every student has the right to see themselves at some point in their educational journey in the role model of a teacher. Whether it is with respect to ethnicity, religious affiliation, ability or any other unique aspect of oneself, students need role models. They need to be inspired by teachers who are proud of who they are. I failed to do that as a classroom teacher. To this day, I can see the faces of particular students who I knew by strong intuition were struggling, actually suffering, through the process of discovering their own sexual orientation. They had no one to look up to, no one to see that they could emulate and no one to reflect back to them that they were worthy and good. I didn’t do this for these most vulnerable kids and it eroded my integrity day by day.
When I started my next career at the Ontario College of Teachers, I vowed to never live like that again, and I haven’t. Here’s where NASDTEC comes in. Through the integrity of the leadership of this organization and the support of this community, I was invited to present at the Professional Practices Institute in 2014 on the topic “Teaching LGBTQ Students – Where Ethics Fail, Laws Protect”. This was new territory for this community. NASDTECtook a risk and the presentation went on. Some folks were comforted, some were inspired and indeed, some were challenged. Overall, the response was very positive, appreciative and a general sense of commitment to continue the conversation followed. NASDTEC allowed me to be present with full integrity and I am confident that this movement of inclusion and compassion may allow one more student to see him or herself in their role models we call teachers.
Care. Trust. Respect. Integrity. These are the ethics I cherish in teaching. These are the principles we all aspire to achieve and model.
I stand before you today humbled and privileged.
I am humbled to be included among the forward-thinking educators who have also received the Doug Bates Award, named for a man legendary for his commitment to moral fitness in teaching practice. Several of those past recipients I’m pleased to say are now among my closest friends.
I am privileged to benefit from the collective wisdom and passion of such a community. I am privileged to learn from their examples and champion their actions and experiences. I am also privileged to hold a torch for change that is responsive, progressive and humane.
Finally, I’m privileged to share this time with you as we work together to continue to reach the highest ideals of professionalism in teaching while always -- always – protecting the safety and welfare of children.
Thank you.