Pedagogical value competence

Competence goal 14: You understand how values and ethical principles guide a teacher’s actions.

A professional teacher must act, in all situations without exception, in accordance with good professional ethics. The teacher's value competence includes the ethical principles of the teacher's work and the value goals that guide the work, as well as the promotion of sustainable development, human rights, equality, and participation in education. (Translated from Pedagoginen arvo-osaaminen – eMateriaalit (oamk.fi))

Teacher’s ethical principles and the values behind them

According to the Finnish Teacher’s Trade Union (OAJ) the core of teaching consists of four basic values:

Human dignity – teacher should respect every students regardless of gender, sexual orientation and gender diversity, appearance, age, religion, social status, origin, opinions, abilities and achievements.

Truthfulness -  another central value in teacher’s work when guiding a learner to face life and environment and also includes honesty and respect in all interactions.

Fairness – this is a particularly important value for both in encountering an individual learner and the group but also for a functioning work community.

Responsibility and freedom – while a teacher has a right to her own set of values, in teaching she has a responsibility to follow norms such as legislation and curriculum.

Ethics is the basis of all the teacher’s activities – whether we are talking about the teacher-student relationship, pluralism or the teacher’s relationship to her work. The Comenius Oath is an ethical guideline supporting the work of a teacher: comeniuksen_vala_eng.pdf (oaj.fi)

Equality in education

“The purpose of the Equality Act (1325/2014) is to promote equality and prevent discrimination. No one may be discriminated against on the basis of age, origin, nationality, language, religion, belief, opinion, political activity, trade union activity, family relationships, health status, disability, sexual orientation or any other reason related to the person.”

Furthermore, according to the Equality Act (609/1986):

“The educational organization must ensure that women and men have the same opportunities for education and professional development, and that teaching, research and learning materials support the realization of the purpose of the Equality Act. Special attention should be paid to student selection, teaching practices, learning differences and the evaluation, as well as the prevention and elimination of sexual harassment and gender-based harassment.”

Aa part of the Equality Act, Finnish educational institutions are obliged to draw up an equality plan aimed at the development of operations, i.e. a functional equality plan. The functional equality plan is a tool that supports the promotion of gender equality in all activities of the educational institution. (oph.fi)

In addition to the equality plan, the educational institution must draw up a personnel policy equality plan if the number of personnel employed by the educational institution is permanently more than 30 employees.

Equality in SeAMK

With the measures recorded in the equality and equality plan, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences aims to promote equality, diversity and well-being in the working community and the place of study. The plan can be found here: https://storage.googleapis.com/seamk-production/2022/04/32f99106-tasa-arvo-ja-yhdenvertaisuussuunnitelma-2022-2023_final.pdf

SeAMK's core values ​​are entrepreneurial spirit, internationality, SeAMK spirit and responsibility. The values ​​have been opened in more detail, for example as follows:

"We do things together, we value each other and we care about each other. We operate openly and interactively. We rejoice together in success. We are proud of our expertise and our university of applied sciences. We bear responsibility for the students' professional skills and employment, as well as the success of the province. We care about common well-being and the environment. We are each responsible for what we do and encourage students to take responsibility. We develop our skills and share knowledge with others."

Equality goals and measures in SeAMK

“Every employee and student of Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences must promote the realization of equality and equality in their own operating environment, with their own activities and behavior. Everyone is responsible for non-discrimination in their actions, expressions and speech.” (SeAMK Equality Plan)

Action guidelines supporting equality have been compiled for the personnel in the SeAMK intra, such as the Prevention of Mistreatment action guide, Psychosocial stress at work - prevention, identification and correction of disadvantages, Age program and Early support. A staff survey on staff job satisfaction and atmosphere is carried out for full-time staff every 2–3 years.

Action guidelines supporting equality and equality have been compiled for students also in SeAMK Intra, e.g. the accessibility plan as well as the student well-being action plan. The student barometer, which is carried out every three years, is an important indicator of equality experienced by students. The annual student feedback survey (AVOP) of universities of applied sciences includes questions about equality. In addition, the student forums organized in many degree programs offer good opportunities to discuss students' ideas about experiencing equality.

Thoughts on values, ethics and equality in teacher’s work

While the guidelines surrounding this topic are fairly straightforward, I feel, from my limited teaching experience, that this issue if far more complicated when we come to practice. Below I have discussed few related topics that I have faced during the past few years:

Evaluation/quality of teaching&guidance: When you have tens if not hundreds of teachers, how to guarantee level and quality of teaching, evaluation, guidance? Yes, we have student feedback in place but if only a handful of students reply to the questionnaire, and possibly only the ones that are disgruntled, how can that give a true, scientific answer? When it comes to student councelling, there seems to be large differences between degree programs, in some of them only 20% of the students had used a study councellor during their studies according to one of our internal studies. This raises a question whether the lack of use of these services is due to the lack of availability, general poor quality or the large number of students that just didn’t need any support. Nevertheless, perhaps a topic for further research.

Also, it is clear from the discussions we have been having at my organization, that the student material is changing. Officially it has been estimated that perhaps 10% of students in higher education are suffering from learning disabilities but the true figure, according to SeAMK specialist teachers, could be as much as 30% of the students. This figure also includes students with mental health problems like anxiety. Furthermore, the basic level of maths, finnish and foreign languages seems to be poorer by year and this puts the teachers in a difficult situation. In a hugely heterogenic class it is difficult to run through the course without extra measures that of course need extra resources. This could in some instances perhaps materialize in inequality. That said, in SeAMK, the support teachers get for eg. facing students with learning difficulties, is excellent, and help is there if you need it.

Equality at work: From the SeAMK equality plan, it is clear that there is still quite strong segregation also in teachers’ work. Male teachers earn appr. 400€ more per month than female teachers. This is largely due to the 20% higher salaries that teachers in technical field earn (and 90% of these teachers are male). That said, For R&D personnel, the average salary of women is higher than the average salary of men. The explanatory factors are e.g. the fact that there are more women in higher-paid management and expert positions.

Online learning and AI: There is a real push to develop more online courses. While these courses, that are not bound to time or place, increase equality, as students in regional areas also have access to education, there is also a real risk that do we really know who is the student? Same goes with the rise of AI that definitely challenges educational institutions to decide what do we need to teach and what is essential for the students to know in the future and what can AI generate.

 

 

References:

Comenius' Oath: https://www.oaj.fi/contentassets/31548b52f43348c69e1c6ef4f7ece0ab/comeniuksen_vala_eng.pdf

Opetustyön eettiset periaatteet (oaj.fi)

Pedagoginen arvo-osaaminen – eMateriaalit (oamk.fi)

Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences Equality Plan: https://storage.googleapis.com/seamk-production/2022/04/32f99106-tasa-arvo-ja-yhdenvertaisuussuunnitelma-2022-2023_final.pdf

Tasa-arvo- ja yhdenvertaisuussuunnittelu oppilaitoksissa | Opetushallitus (oph.fi)

 

 

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