Personal and Ethical Foundations
The personal and ethical foundations competency is crucial to the foundation of student affairs work. The integrity needed by higher education administrators to uphold ethical choices and the care required to work with others comes from a process of self-reflection and curiosity. The development of personal and ethical foundations is an individual experience and develops over time throughout lived experiences.
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The American College Personnel Association’s (ACPA) Statement of Ethical Principles & Standards (SITE) outlines guidelines for student affairs professionals. These ethical principles include professional responsibilities and competencies, student learning and development principles, professional responsibility to the institution, and responsibility to society. The National Education Association’s (NEA) Code of Ethics for Educators (SITE) outlines similar commitments to students and the profession that educators and “education support professionals” should uphold. Both ACPA and NEA encourage professionals to uphold high ethical standards and to continue to improve upon their personal and professional development. These statements are attached as artifacts below.
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My personal and ethical foundations have become clearer to me in the past few years as I have reflected on and experienced challenges to my values. I have worked in places that do not immediately support the initiatives and efforts that I champion, and I have found myself having to reconcile the differences between what I value and the responsibility to uphold the foundations of the institution that I am representing. I believe that compassion and guidance are fundamental to student affairs work, and I am able to draw on those when my values conflict with direction from an institution. The faith I place in compassion comes from the assurance I myself received from mentors and student affairs professionals in school. In instances when I needed support, they interpreted the ways that I needed help and guided me forward.
As a graduate assistant in student involvement and new student and family programs, and as the graduate ambassador for my master’s program, I have had the chance to put into practice my own personal code of ethics. While I am admittedly still in the developing phase of my professional career, I believe that it is important to respect others, to always tell the truth, and to seek self-improvement as a lifelong learner. These tenants extend throughout my work and have motivated me to be a better professional for the students I serve.
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The moments of personal reflection and challenges that I have experienced have opened my eyes to the importance of understanding institution type and an institution’s priorities. Before attending Boston College, a private Jesuit institution on the East Coast, I attended Ohio University, a large public university in the Midwest. During my master’s program, I have come to understand the fundamental differences between private and public universities and the advantages and challenges that accompany both institution types. I have learned to balance my own identities and values with institutional values and have developed the skills to navigate professional situations that carry challenges to my personal beliefs.
In order to expand upon my personal and professional development and the ethical foundations competency required of student affairs practitioners, I intend to seek out new skills and information. I will continue to read about social issues and participate in discussions about new developments in higher education. I hope to continue to learn from mentors who have experienced ethical challenges and can guide my professional development.
Artifacts
Response to Bowen, C., Bessette, H. & Chan, T.C. (2006). Including ethics in the study of educational leadership. Journal of College & Character, 7(7), pp. 1-7.
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Ethics should be a part of every educational leadership program. At its core, higher education and student affairs professionals are helping to mentor and teach the leaders of tomorrow, and we should be helping them develop ethical principles of their own.
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In every career that students will pursue after attending college, there will be some standard of conduct and an expectation of ethical decision making, and I agree with Bowen, Bessette & Chan that there should be attention given to ethical processes in higher ed.
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I would add to the authors' reflection on integrating ethical decision making into educational leadership programs and expand by arguing that each field should incorporate ethical processes in context. The authors hint at this by saying ethics could be introduced in topic-specific leadership courses. I would go a step further and reflect on the value of a field-specific ethical decision making course. For example, if an engineering student is studying civil engineering, their professors should talk about the ethics involved in creating a project that could potentially impact millions of people, like a building or a bridge, and expand on how ethical decision making is directly related to the work that civil engineering students will do upon graduating. Case studies from multiple fields could be incorporated in a more general educational leadership learning, but specific examples related to a student's field of study may help future leaders put ethical decision making into practice.