What Should We Do Dealing with Difficult Decisions in Early Care

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What Should We Do?Dealing with Difficult
Decisions in Early Care Education Programs

• Iowa AEYC Spring Leadership Training
• Peter J. Pizzolongo
• NAEYC Associate Director, Professional
  Development
• Gwen Simmons
• NAEYC Director, Affiliate Relations

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What Should We Do?Dealing with Difficult
Decisions in Early Care Education Programs

• Who Are We?
• Why Are We Here?

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What Should We Do?Dealing with Difficult
Decisions in Early Care Education Programs

• OUTCOMES
• AGENDA

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Part INAEYCs Code of Ethical Conduct and
Supplements for Early Childhood Program
Administrators Adult Educators
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The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct A Position
Statement of

• The National Association for the Education of
  Young Children
• Guidelines for Responsible Behavior in Early
  Childhood Education

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The Code of Ethical Conduct

• Offers guidelines for responsible behavior
• Sets forth a common basis for resolving the
  principal ethical dilemmas encountered in early
  education care
• From the Preamble to the Code

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The Code of Ethical Conduct

• Primary focus daily practice with children
  their families
• Revised periodicallycurrent version approved
  April 2005
• Recent Additions Supplement for EC Adult
  Educators (Joint statement developed with NAECTE
  ACCESS) and Supplement for EC Program
  Admini-strators

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So,What Are Ethics Anyway?
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To answer that question, we have to begin by
looking at

• Values
• Morality
• Professional Core Values
• Ethics
• Professional Ethics
• Ethical Responsi-bilities Dilemmas

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VALUES

• What Do You Value?

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VALUES

• Values are things that an individual believes to
  be intrinsically worthwhile or desirable, that
  are prized for themselves (e.g., truth, beauty,
  honesty justice, respect for people and for the
  environment).

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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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Values for Sale
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What Did You Purchase?What Do You Value Most?
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Back to Our Terms

• Values
• Core Values

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MORALITY

• Morality involves peoples' views of what is good,
  right, or proper their beliefs about their
  obligations and their ideas about how they
  should behave.
• Morality concerns duties and obligations to one
  another and is characterized by words such as
  right, ought, just and fair.

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ETHICS

• Ethics is the study of right and wrong, duties
  and obligations.
• Ethics involves critical reflection on morality,
  including the ability to make choices between
  values and the examination of the moral
  dimensions of relationships.

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PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

• The moral commitments of a profession that
• involve moral reflection that extends and
  enhances the personal morality practitioners
  bring to their work,
• concern actions of right and wrong in the
  workplace, and
• help individuals resolve moral dilemmas they
  encounter in their work.

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Ethical Responsibilities Ethical Dilemmas

• Ethical Responsibilities
• --clear-cut, spelled out
• Ethical Dilemma
• --conflicting professional values
  responsibilities

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What Does a Code of Ethics Do?

• Creates a professions sense of identity
• Identifies the issues the profession cares about
  and wants new members to care about
• Communicates with those outside the profession
  what they can expect from its members

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HISTORY OF THE CODE

• Initially prepared under the auspices of the
  Ethics Commission of NAEYC, which became the
  Ethics Panel
• Its development was a 5-year process, involving
  NAEYC membership
• Draft Code approved by NAEYC Governing Board July
  1989

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HISTORY OF THE CODE(cont.)

• 1st set of revisions adopted 1992
• 2nd set of revisions approved by Board November
  1997
• 3rd set of revisions approved by Board April 2005
• Code is reviewed for revision periodically (every
  5 years)

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The Code

• The goal of NAEYCs Code of Ethical Conduct is to
  inform, not prescribe, answers in tough decisions
  that teachers and other early childhood
  professionals must make as they work with
  children and families.
• The strategy inherent in the code is to promote
  the application of core values, ideals, and
  principles to guide decisionmaking about ethical
  issues.
• S. Feeney N. Freeman, 1999. Ethics and The
  Early Childhood Educator Using the NAEYC Code.

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SECTIONS OF THE CODE of ETHICAL CONDUCT

• Core values
• Conceptual framework
• Identifies ethical responsibilities to . . .
• Children
• Families
• Colleagues
• The community and society

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PROFESSIONAL CORE VALUES

• Beliefs that are essential and non-negotiable
• Are embraced by all members of the profession
• Are rooted in the fields history and grow from
  its fundamental beliefs
• Shift the discussion from personal values and
  morality to professional values and morality

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• Each of the four sections of the Code includes
• IDEALS
• and
• Principles

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IDEALS

• Operationalize the fields Core Values
• Describe exemplary professional behavior
• Describe professionals aspirations

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PRINCIPLES Rules of professional conduct

• Describe how professionals are expected to
  behave what they MUST and MUST NOT do
• They are NOT optional
• Most are designed to be very clear and specific

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The mother code

• Was first adopted in 1989
• Has been revised in 1992, 1997, and 2005
• The 2005 revision added a glossary and. . .
• ONE Core Value
• Respect diversity in children, families, and
  colleagues
• NINE items related to assessment and policies
  related to assessment
• FIVE items describing responsibilities to provide
  linguistically and culturally appropriate
  programming

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Two recently developed supplements . . .

• The mother Code doesnt address the unique
  responsibilities of early childhood educators who
  are not classroom-based
• Supplement for Early Childhood Adult Educators
  (2004)
• Supplement for Early Childhood Program
  Administrators (2006)

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Development of the Supplement for Adult Educators

• Mid-1990s NAECTE ACCESS leaders initiated
  collaboration on professional ethics
• NAECTE, ACCESS, DEC workshops on using NAEYC
  Code for addressing teacher educator ethical
  responsibilitiesnoted need for something else
• Board appointed Workgroup ? draft supplement
• Feedback input via Institute and Conference
  sessions, NAEYC website
• Adopted by NAEYC, NAECTE, and ACCESS boards in
  Spring 2004

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Additional Core Values for Adult Educators . . .

• Respect the critical role of a knowledgeable,
  competent, diverse workforce
• Base practice on current accurate knowledge

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Adult Educators have responsibilities to these
stakeholders

• to sites for placement of trainees
• to the agencies providing the training
• regarding colleagues
• to children and families
• to community, society, and the field of early
  childhood education

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Situations with ethical dimensions cluster around
these issues . . .

• Quality of field placements - multiple client
  issues
• Access qualifications to advance in the
  profession/gatekeeping
• Grading especially students who are good with
  children but poor academically

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Situations with ethical dimensions cluster around
these issues . . .

• Relationships w/ colleagues faithfulness to
  syllabus/ training outline, fairness of
  evaluation grading, qualified for
  teaching/training assignments?
• Students teaching strategies
• Information management (gossip vs. professional
  conversations)

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Development of the Supplement for Early
Childhood Program Administrators

• Work began in 1997
• Board appointed Workgroup ? draft supplement
• Feedback provided via Institute and Conference
  sessions, NAEYC Website, and from allied
  organizations
• Adopted by NAEYC Governing Board in July 2006

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Additional Core Values for Administrators

• To recognize that the well-being of the children
  in our care is our primary responsibility, above
  our responsibilities to other constituencies.
• To be committed to the professional development
  of staff (an extension of the core value of
  basing work with children on knowledge of child
  development).

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Administrators have responsibilities to these
stakeholders

• to children
• to families
• to personnel
• to governing bodies/ sponsoring agencies
• ... to community and society

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Situations with ethical dimensions cluster around
these issues. . .

• School enrollment policies
• Dealings with personnel, sponsoring agencies /
  funders
• Relationships with families

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So, How Can the Code Be Used in Real-Life
Situations
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The Process of Resolving an Ethical Dilemma

• Identify the problem
• Decide if it involves ethics
• Is it a dilemma or responsibility?
• Can it be finessed?
• Look for guidance in the NAEYC Code
• What are the conflicting values?
• How should they be prioritized?
• What is the most ethically defensible course of
  action?

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What Would the GoodEC Educator Do?

• A game with rules!
• Youll play this game with your colleagues

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What Would the GoodEC Educator Do?

• Choose from Group 1 AND Group 2
• Use the Code for guidance
• What core values apply?
• To whom do you have responsibilities?
• What guidance is in the Code?
• What would the good ECEer do?

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What Would the GoodEC Educator Do?

• Discuss (and its OK to change your decisions
  after hearing from your colleagues)

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What Would the GoodEC Program Administrator Do?

• Discuss (and its OK to change your decisions
  after hearing from your colleagues)

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Report-OutWhat Would the GoodEC
Educator/Administrator/EC Educator Do?

• How did you determineto whom do you have
  responsibilities?
• How did the Code guide your decisionmaking?
• Did you use Core Values, Ideals, Principles?
• Were you between a rock a hard place at any
  point?

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As you consider these difficult situations . . .

• To whom do you have responsibilities?
• What would a good adult educator do?
• Which items in the Code/Supplement led you to
  this resolution?

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Why Is the Existence of the Code Important to ECE?
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The Code and SupplementsFinal Thoughts
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Lunch!
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What Should We Do?Dealing with Difficult
Decisions in Early Care Education Programs

• Iowa AEYC Spring Leadership Training
• Gwen Simmons
• NAEYC Director, Affiliate Relations
• Peter J. Pizzolongo
• NAEYC Associate Director, Professional
  Development

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Part IILeading Managing Our Programs in Ways
that Are Ethical Effective!
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Inspiration

• The Genius you bring..
• Best Leader

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Good Is the Enemy of Great

• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Research based
• Humility Will Level 5 Leader
• Setting up Successors for Success
• A Compelling Modesty
• Unwavering Resolve Do What Must Be Done
• Window and the Mirror

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Level 5 Leadership

• Level 5 Executive
• Level 4 Effective Leader
• Level 3 Competent Manager
• Level 2 Contributing Team Membe
• Level 1 Highly Capable Individual

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Level 5 Leadership

• Executive personal humility and professional
  will
• Effective Leader - clear, compelling vision
• Competent Manager - efficient pursuit of
  predetermined objectives

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Level 5 Leadership

• Contributing Team Member works effectively with
  others towards objectives
• Highly Capable Individual productive
  contributions

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Whats the Difference?

• Manager
• Leader
• Which role do you play?

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Views of Leadership

• Challenge the process
• Inspire vision in others
• Enable others to act
• Model the way
• Encourage the heart
• Kouzes Posner, 5 Principles of Leadership

• Direction
• Trust
• Hope
• Warren Bennis, 1994, What followers want from
  their Leaders

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My Values Organizational Values

• Our core values
• Moral compass
• Fundamental commitments
• Organizational values
• Introduced reinforced
• Understood by all
• Reflected in policies procedures

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Vision Alone Is Not Enough

• Show up
• Remember What is Important
• Become a Deep Listener
• Know the Power of Appreciation
• Generate and Sustain Trust

• Vision
• Inspiration
• Right People
• Concrete agenda
• Action
• Momentum

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VALUES

• What Do You Value?
• as a Leader?

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VALUES

• Values are things that an individual believes to
  be intrinsically worthwhile or desirable, that
  are prized for themselves (e.g., truth, beauty,
  honesty justice, respect for people and for the
  environment).

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Values Leadership

• Personal values shape our beliefs
• What is important for our programs to include in
  a repertoire of services
• How will we treat our coworkers, the children,
  the families we serve, board members, community
  partners, competitors, etc.
• How do we spend our valuable time!

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What Do You Value as a Leader/Administrator

• Personal Values (honesty integrity,
  independence, freedom, respect for others, etc.)
• Values as a leader/administrator (accountability,
  achievement, compensation, tolerance, etc.)
• Where do the twain meet?

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What Do You Value as a Leader/Administrator

• Reflect
• I value
• I stand for
• I believe that
• Discuss
• I live these values in my work setting by

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Leaders Values Facilitative Leadership
Assumptions

• Inspire, motivate, affect the feelings actions
  of others
• Give voice to staff, to parents
• Help others learn how to learn
• Decrease dependence

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Qualities of a Facilitative Leader

• Information sharing
• Problem solving
• Decision making
• Conflict management
• Parent communications
• Community relations
• Goal setting
• Group norms culture
• Allocation of time

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Qualities of a Facilitative Leader

• Recruiting and hiring staff
• Job assignments
• Supervision professional development
• Performance appraisal
• Compensation
• Physical environment
• Training
• Program evaluation

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Facilitative Leadership

• Your values
• Examples of actions, behaviors, policies
• Challenges
• Working through challenges

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Ethics and Values and Facilitative Leadership
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Ethics and Values and Facilitative Leadership

• Review ethics cases from this morning
• Reflect Values qualities of facilitative
  leaders I need to consider
• Share with a small group
• Determinehow will I resolve this situation
  (incorporating reflection of values
  facilitative leadership qualities)

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Helping others

• How can I use the principles of facilitative
  leadership to help program staff understand their
  ethical responsibilities and address situations
  that have ethical dimensions?

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Leading Managing Our Programs in Ways that Are
Ethical EffectiveFinal Thoughts