Now What? Confronting and Resolving Ethical Questions

Sarah V. Mackenzie is associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Maine. She has dealt with ethical issues in education for many years, first in her own hands-on experiences as a teacher and teacher leader and now in her role as a professor of educational leadership. Her most recent book, Uncovering Teacher Leadership: Essays and Voices From the Field (Corwin, 2007), is a compilation of writing focused on the inner lives of teacher leaders. She and Richard Ackerman published an article in the May 2006 issue of Educational Leadership titled "Uncovering Teacher Leadership." In all of her work-as a teacher and a teacher of teachers and leaders-she has recognized the critical relationship between what teachers believe about their work and how successfully they perform that work. G. Calvin Mackenzie is The Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government at Colby College. He has written extensively about ethics in government and has led ethics seminars for public officials across the country. He served as chair of the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices and was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. A political scientist by training, Mackenzie has been a government professor and scholar for more than 30 years. He has written or edited 15 books, including a leading introductory American government text and several award-winning empirical studies of the national government. His latest book, The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s (with Robert Weisbrot) was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History.

Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Part I. Thinking About Ethics 1. Engaging in Ethics 2. Ethical Behavior: Some General Principles Part II. Acting Ethically: Teachers and Their Constituents 3. The Essential Learning Relationship: Teachers and Students 4. Important Pieces of the Puzzle: Teachers and Parents Part III. Acting Ethically: Teachers and Their Colleagues 5. Trust and Respect: Teachers as Colleagues 6. The Sum of the Parts: Teachers on Collaborative Teams 7. Clash of Philosophies: The School Faculty 8. Clashing Codes: Professional Communities of Teachers Part IV. Acting Ethically: Teachers and Supervisors 9. Power and Authority: Teachers and Their Principals 10. The Teacher, Superintendent and School Board, and the Community 11. Summing Up Resource A. Workshop Outline: Tools for Teachers and Teacher Leaders Resource B. Examining Critical Events References Index

"This is a book that should set off needed conversations in every school and classroom and school board meeting-and the dinner table. Sometimes I wanted to quarrel with the authors, and that's part of its genius. It always managed to provoke me to think and to engage with these dilemmas." -- Deborah Meier, Senior Scholar and Adjunct Professor "Schools are full of situations fraught with ethical implications. The Mackenzies show us how to recognize moral dilemmas, employ guidelines for addressing them, and, by walking us through abundant yeasty cases, teach us how to resolve them on our own. A gift to educators, the educational profession, and to all who would behave ethically and professionally within it." -- Roland Barth, Educational Consultant