Teachers are expected to impart appropriate values through their pedagogy and interactions, acting as moral exemplars while helping guide their students towards ethical decision-making processes.
However, education's ethics can become complex as educators face many ethical challenges during their teaching careers - one being social inequity.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is an unacceptable practice that can result in suspension or expulsion from educational institutions. Furthermore, plagiarism violates human ethics as it deprives others of credit that is due them. Plagiarizing can include turning in papers written by someone else; paraphrasing research findings without attributing their authorship; or borrowing test answers without permission.
Academic institutions must go beyond deterrence, detection and punishment of plagiarism to address its core cause: lack of understanding regarding academic honesty guidelines and expectations. Students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels need to be educated about appropriate research methodologies and citation practices.
Cheaters and plagiarizers don't gain anything by cheating and plagiarizing; instead they simply take shortcuts to pass classes. Plagiarism's impact is equally detrimental as graduates who engage in plagiarism are no longer qualified for professional jobs such as doctors or lawyers; in addition, professional licenses like pilot licenses rely upon ethical tests being completed successfully before being eligible.
Academic Honesty
Academic honesty refers to our academic community's fundamental values of trust, responsibility, respect, and fairness. It involves sharing a belief that others' words, ideas, facts, or work belong to all of us and must be given credit whenever used. Plagiarism violates this principle in an extremely serious manner and constitutes an act of dishonesty that violates academic honesty itself.
Academic dishonesty can have far-reaching repercussions for an institution as a whole; its effects extend far beyond a student. Academic dishonesty may damage faculty reputations, undermine program credibility and have lasting repercussions for alumni. Students obtaining credentials through academic dishonesty in regulated professions such as medicine, engineering and law may put public safety and welfare at risk.
The College has implemented procedures designed to be fair and consistent when dealing with academic dishonesty. Our policy requires reporting incidents of academic dishonesty as soon as they arise and includes a hearing process with our Board of Academic Honesty in order to reach a resolution.
Ethics in Education
Teachers often encounter ethical quandaries that have real-world ramifications for their students; yet unlike other professions, ethics in education tends to be poorly understood and poorly mapped.
One reason is the subjective nature of ethics. While most would agree that cheating is unethical, different people often hold differing viewpoints on what exactly constitutes an ethical behavior.
As one example, some may view dishonesty as a genetic disorder that only some are subject to, while others view it as part of human nature and necessary in everyday situations. This difference of opinion has an enormous influence on how we address academic honesty issues.
Other challenges stem from ethics education not being given sufficient priority during teacher training and practice preparation. As such, educators may not be equipped to deal with ethical issues when they arise - ultimately leading to moral distress (Ribers 2018). Therefore it is imperative that educators understand how ethics are debated so they are aware of potential impacts different conceptions of ethics may have on them and make educated choices when making ethical choices (Ribers 2018).
Ethical Decision-Making
Ethical leadership involves making all decisions with students' well-being and success as their top priority, while upholding civil and human rights of all. Yet within this seemingly straightforward instruction lurk numerous ethical dilemmas and challenges for education leaders to navigate.
Religion, culture and other groups often differ on what constitutes acceptable or unacceptable behaviors in certain situations. While it can be challenging to teach these specific codes directly, colleges can still teach important values such as reciprocity, honesty and compassion through their teachings and curriculum.
Idealistically, ethics should be introduced in every course where its principles might possibly come into play. This ensures that students internalize them rather than viewing it as something specific to one course or situation. Furthermore, providing students with exposure to a range of ethical situations through assignments, quizzes and exams may help protect against pressures to behave unethically and help inoculate against pressures to behave unethically.
