The Ethical Educator

The application of ethics is important to everyday life, but the application of ethics is more important when used in leadership. We have seen the affects that unethical leaders have had on our society. As Palmer (2004) pointed out,

Today we live in a blizzard of another sort. It swirls within us as fear and frenzy, greed and deceit, and indifference to the suffering of others. We all know stories of people who have wandered off into this madness and been separated from their own souls, losing their moral bearings and even their mortal lives: they make headlines because they take so many innocent lives down with them (p.1).

Due to this fact and my strong feeling about how, people have wandered off into madness, separated from their own soul, I feel as if people should come back to reality and disconnect themselves from the technological world we live in today. Boer (2012) urges that we use technology in consideration and how such technology can move us in the direction that deters us from having a truly focused life in the world. In the book, living into focus: choosing what matters in the age of distractions, technology is that distraction that forces our lives to be filled with voids in our souls and can make people wander off into madness.

Boer (2012) states, “when we allow devices and machines to reside at the center of our lives, we displace values and practices that once enriched the quality of how we live” (p.19).

I find this quote something I am realizing in today’s world with my own journey in leadership and believe that technology has truly displaced values and practices in the way I live. But it is the journey that I started two years ago that began the separation from technology and has allowed me to bring myself back to the real world to connect with nature and my soul. This transformation that has occurred in my life has allowed me to take the time to motivate and inspire my music students to see the importance of what they are learning, and how music can affect their lives in a positive way so that they can enrich the world in a variety of ways as consumers and educators of the music industry.

Just as it is in a professor’s duty to help guide their students to truth and excellence, to treat others with respect, and through words and actions I will teach my students to treat others with respect (Markie, 1994). I feel that good leaders are in this world for a reason, that they are ethically bound to guide their followers in truth and in excellence so that they can reach their full potential. Through myself and my leadership I will increasingly inspire my students in music to be active in what they are learning, to not be afraid to take the chance to perform a solo, and to embrace the experience that music presents to our culture, community, family and ethical ideas that allow people to have strong connections between commitment and spirituality.

Bonhoeffer (1955) says, “but when all has been said it is still necessary really to examine the will of God, what is rightful in a given situation, what course is truly to please God; for, after all, there has to be concrete life and action. Intelligence, discernment, attentive observation of the given facts, all these now come into lively operation, all will be embraced and pervaded by prayer” (p.43).

When we hold to this, we are acting in ethical and morally good ways, which helps to make better leaders understand how we can help others grow as individuals.

As a music educator, a piece of being a good leader is being able to connect with my students on an emotional level and allowing for a strong sense of empathy in truly seeing the needs of each student. I know to be effective, I have to be a communicator of knowledge and set the target for my students to aim towards and do everything in my power to guide them in the most efficient manner. The most important requirement is through self-reflection, and the understanding that we all learn by experiences and mistakes but unless I don’t question myself about my experiences and what they mean, I won’t be able to make any changes. This is tied to the teachers’ responsibility of scholarship. As part of this scholarship, I am obliged to engage in scholarship choices of what I am able to teach my students and obligated to engage in scholarships that inform my choices in how I am going to teach (Markie, 1994, p.77).

Through this, the inquiry-based learning model can be useful at this level of study to guide students’ first experiences of academic scholarship (Ekline, 2004). Inquiry-based learning,

A complex process is involved when individuals attempt to convert information and data into useful knowledge. A useful application of inquiry learning involves several factors: a context for questions, a framework for questions, a focus for questions, and different levels of questions. Well-designed inquiry learning produces formation that be widely applied (Ekline, 2004, para 6).

Helping my students through the appropriate research methods in music and creating their own understanding of music and the currently held truth and excellence for themselves is an important part of my leadership as a music educator.

Through the style of transformational leadership, I will be able to enact on the value and practices and rule-based consequentialism in my vocation and calling as a music educator. As long as I remember what Boer (2012) said that when we allow “devices and machines to reside at the center of our lives, we displace values and practices that once enriched the quality of how we live” (p.19), I will be living an ethical and morally life where I will be able to fulfill the needs of leadership and avoid the unethical blizzard that Palmer (2004) gives warning about.

References

Bonhoeffer, D. (1995). Ethics. (N.H. Smith, Trans.). New York, NY: Touchstone.

Borgmann, A. (2006). Real American ethics: Taking responsibility for our country. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press

Ekline, J. (2004). Workshop: Inquiry-based learning. Retrieved on Aug 17, 2016, from: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/

Markie, P. (1994). A professor’s duties: Ethical issues in college teaching. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Palmer, P. J. (2008). A hidden wholeness. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.