Ethics in education is critical and requires generosity and sacrifice that go beyond the norm and courage, says Professor Jonathan Jansen.
The distinguished professor in education at Stellenbosch University was addressing principals, teachers and representatives from NGOs that work with schools, at the School Leadership Forum, held at Oude Molen Technical High School, in Pinelands, last Thursday.
The forum, established with UWC and the University of Johannesburg, in 2012, supports leadership in education and is an initiative of the Citizen Leader Lab, a non-profit organisation.
In its simplest form, ethics was the difference between right and wrong, said Professor Jansen, but he presented various scenarios to the group that tested where they would draw the line.
When he was appointed as chancellor of the University of the Free State, he said he had made it clear to his family that they would not work at his university, despite their qualifications, as he never wanted their appointments questioned.
“My daughter, who studied disaster management, got a part-time job on campus that I did not know about, but when I found out, I paid them back everything she had earned, and she no longer worked there,” he said, adding that when you were in a leadership position your every move was watched and you did not want your ethics to be called into question.
Organisations often failed in their ethical responsibility because of incapability and a lack of integrity, he said, noting that no school could succeed without strong ethical leadership.
An ethical culture could not be preached or enforced but had to be built over time through consistent and consequential actions such as rewarding good and punishing bad behaviour, fair treatment, delivering results and having a clear vision.
“Insisting on ethical behaviour is a courageous act for it can have deadly consequences,” he warned.
Ethical leadership would always be compromised when things other than capabilities and integrity determined appointments, he said, adding that ethical leadership had to be visible and demonstrative,
School Leadership Forum lead Nonhlanhla Linda-Taylor said they had selected Professor Jansen for this topic specifically to get school leaders thinking about ethical challenges.
“Many of our schools are becoming complex moral environments due to rapidly changing pupil and community demographics, resource limitations, curriculum and policy challenges and greater awareness of global issues.
“In morally complex environments such as schooling, school leaders and educators at some point face difficulties associated with making ethical decisions and responding to critical situations and incidents.”
The forum’s Partners for Possibility leadership programme, she said, paired principals from poor communities with business leaders to give the principals the support and skills to lead change and mobilise their communities, while business leaders honed their own leadership skills within a challenging school environment.
Principal Rodney Hendricks, from Parow Valley Primary School, said that in his 30 years in education, he had noticed that colleagues were not open to sharing best practices.
“When I joined Partners for Possibility, there was a transfer of knowledge which helped elevate our school. It is a wonderful programme and I encourage all schools to get on board,” he said.
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