Day 5 Leadership Reflection

Leadership Reflection

Today's session was about moral issues and dilemmas. We have started to discuss Kidder's 9 checkpoints for Ethical Decision Making. 

The first step is to recognize that there is a moral issue. It was interesting to see the graph about all right vs all wrong. We might think that everything is black or white or that everything is grey. It is really important to think about what would we fight for, and what we stand up for. We would also think that evil is intentional, but we need to consider what is the effect and if we are causing harm. 

We also talked about how there is a moral implication of doing nothing. We often say at school "There is nothing I can do, it is the system." As leaders, we can not transfer the school's structures entirely but we have to think clearly about what we are able to do (instead of blaming the system). 

I noted down the  following quote: 

"It is not evil doers who are the problem in education organizations, it is others tolerating or even obeying those who commit evils."

My understanding of this quote is that the main issue at a school might not be the presence of individuals who engage in unethical decision-making, but the tolerance and compliance of others within the school who allow unethical decisions to happen. So in this regard ethical decision-making should be a collective accountability, every member of the school community has an obligation for ethical actions.

We need to be mindful that ethics is part of our decisions. We are all capable of evil but if we make sure that the system is in place and identify what is the moral issue, we are able to make an ethical decision. 

We also talked about who the actors are in a dilemma, who is responsible for the problem or dilemma, and whose dilemma really is. Sometimes we have dilemmas when there are two right decisions and two right answers. The question we need to ask is "Am I responsible for this decision?"

I have also learned that we need to determine who the actors are and most and foremost identify and deal with the main actor.