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Good question!

I don’t think it is ever okay to act against our Moral Purpose. According to Fallan, Moral Purpose: the intention to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals such as employees, clients and society as a whole. Even in real life situations when we are forced to make difficult decisions we should not compromise our integrity, our sense of doing what is right, even if that means expelling a student, giving an unsatisfactory mark. However, these decisions need to be made in the “best interest” of the individual in question not at the ego of the school principal.

Regards

Hi Anthony,

I am not sure that you are behaving in a way that difies MORAL PURPOSE as I review your examples. You raise an interesting question that hopefuuly others will respond.

Best wishes,

Niagara

Idealism is great in a classroom setting and I think you need to have a certain amount of idealism in this profession but I don’t necessarily think the issues presented concern moral purpose. Unfortunately, those issues are dealt with because they are reality. If you are in a profession that you feel requires you to act against your moral prupose then I don’t think that is the profession for you. I agree with Denise when she says that as long as you feel you are acting in the best interest of those involved, you are not defying moral purpose. To a certain extent you are being hindered by the bureaucratic process and procedure. It’s unfortunate that the Principal’s Qualification Program does not teach more realistic situations and scenarios for upcoming leaders.

I agree with Denise, everything that we do should be guided by our Moral Purpose. This issue brings up another question for me. I believe that the OPC/CPCO are looking at the issue of experience when it comes to entering the Administrative field. How long should one be a teacher before entering Administration? The “real life” scenarios are best learned when they have actually been experienced. Not all, thankfully, happen in ones tenure in the classroom, but being faced with difficult decisions and, more importantly, acting on them is extremely important. The more one has to question and evaluate decisions that have been made, both good and bad, the more one establishes confidence in the ability to follow and base decisions on ones Moral Purpose. This is especially true when we make decisions that “go against the grain” so to speak. Questioning oneself…..did I do the right thing, how could I have handled it better, what worked/what didn’t…..is invaluable when attempting to improve ones practice. No amount of experience can necessarily prepare us for everything, but it must be an integral part of what we bring to the table. Personally, I would not have felt “prepared” enough to think about Administration without many years of classroom experience. I’m not sure, however, that enough people are thinking of Administration to make it possible to require more than the 5 years experience now required.

I agree with the others. We will all eventually have to make some decisions that we may not want to make and ones that others may not agree with us. But, as long as you follow your moral purpose, then it is naturally right. Having said that, I always like to look at things, after the fact, and give myself “constructive criticism” to help improve my practice. We will all probably make mistakes (we are not perfect) but if we learn from those mistakes then our moral practice is still intact.

Marilyn

Sometimes ‘tough love’ is the best and only choice to promote a positive response to a bad situation where other strategies employed have not been successful. I don’t believe that the decisions you are making as a vice principal, Anthony, go against your moral purpose. If difficult decisions are made after much thought, investigating, interventions to support and foster a positive experience for staff and/or students, and many other strategies to give all members a chance to correct behaviours and move forward, then ‘real’ outcomes will have to be used. Strategies such as the ones you mentioned are only being used to move back to letting the staff member or student try to once again move to an ideal belief for success. Acting with moral purpose does not mean ignoring situations that can only be rectified with tough decision making especially if it involves safety issues.

Hi Anthony, This is definitely a thought provoking and valuable question. I believe that all decisions that we make as educators and administrators must be guided by our moral purpose, and what we know to be good and true. Not having had any administration experience as of yet, I would guess that I am correct in saying that there are times when you come up against and face some rather challenging decisions. That being said, there are times when I believe that doing the right thing, is not always the easiest thing. There is also certain protocol that needs to be followed at the school level, and expectations are set in place for reasons. I think personnal reflection is crucial when it comes to being guided and leading according to “one’s moral purpose”, since it often times necessary to take a step back and put oneself out of the situation first before being able to make a rational decision. I always like to look at it from the standpoint of the safety and well being of all members of a school community. Being able to ask yourself “is my decision going to benefit or harm the community, staff, students, parents in which I serve” is vital to any decision making.

I don’t think at any point is it okay to act against your moral purpose. Yet, at times it may seem as though there are some diffiicult decisions that an administrator must make that may not seem appropriate. But, if one sits down, looks at the big picture and reflects, usually all decisions made are to benefit students and instructions. Sometimes, the decisions do not clearly seem that way to others as they do not know the big picture. This can be very difficult for principals, as the community and staff see decisions made as wrong and inappropriate. It comes back to building relationships. If the relationships in the community and building are strong and trust exists, then people will not question your decisions. I think this takes a while to establish. In the beginning people question everything you do. I think it’s important to be transparent to everyone, have an open door policy about decisions and be proactive and intuitive by preventing problems. It is imperative that people trust that every decision you will make will always have the students at the centre of the decision. The only problem that exists with that is contractual obligations and as long as people understand that those decisions are out of your hands, they will support you.

It seems that there is consensus that one should never go against one’s moral purpose. Reflecting back on my question it may have been more appropriate to ask “when is it okay to act against one’s moral ideal” instead of moral purpose. Yet, after all the responses I wonder if administrators sometimes need to act against our moral PURPOSE. I am such an idealists when it comes to students and wanting the best outcome for each one that I feel some of my decisions infringe on my moral purpose but I am always comfortable with the decisions in the end. I often compare being an administrator to being a parent in the sense that you truly never know what it’s like until you become one.

Anthony it may never be Ok to go against one’s moral purpose but I do believe it is important to question decisions as to whether they are against moral purpose or are they against our own agenda. also I believe it is important to check in on our morals from time to time. Decisions that we make impact others and is their a conflict with our moral purpose and the well being of others. I believe we could have great ethical debate on this topic. Great Question!

Even after reading all of the responses I’m not sure that we always act in alignment with our moral purpose. It’s easy to say that we should never do anything that goes against our fundamental beliefs but then talk is cheap. To take things to the extreme look at the value placed on life itself. While all would agree that it is immoral to commit murder what would you do if you had to sacrifice one life to save a million? Maybe a more realistic example would be animal testing. All products that are consumed by humans whether either externally or internally are tested on animals many of whom suffer and/or die. To align your actions with the belief that all life is equal then one should not consume animal products nor use commercial products that have been tested on animals. Even this last statement is a bit of a myth as while products may claim that they have not been tested on animals if they contain an active ingredient then at some point in time that active ingredient was tested on animals. To bring the focus back on education the phrase “putting students first” may be at the core of our moral purpose but there are numerous examples where this is not the case. Each school probably has a teacher that makes you wonder how the person ever became a teacher. That being said it is almost impossible for a Board to get rid of a teacher for “poor teaching”. Then there’s the statement that “all students can learn given the proper time and support”. If that was the case then whey don’t we give them the time and the support? Boards must work within the constraints of their budgets and human resources.

In the end I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it is okay to act against one’s moral purpose if it is for the greater good. The catch is that an action against one’s moral purpose is not considered immoral if the greater good is served.