Virtual Disconnects: Navigating Identity, Pedagogy, and Ethics

• In Event: Professional Ethics for Future Teachers: Fostering Educational Responsibility

Abstract

This paper explores the ethical conflicts that emerged for teachers engaged in virtual teaching during the COVI-19 pandemic, which seemed to exacerbate inequities and impacted students of color disproportionally.
Perspectives
Many agree that teaching is demanding work, in part because it includes a moral set of responsibilities (Goodlad, Soder, & Sirotnik; 1990). As Cummings, Harlow, and
Maddux (2007) emphasized, teachers have a responsibility to make moral and ethical decisions all the time: they must take into account the needs of students from diverse backgrounds, be fair, consistent, and use their professional authority while ultimately seeing past teachers’ own self interests. It is a generally held mainstream perspective that education has the potential to elevate opportunities and empower those who are disadvantaged due to socioeconomic status. Contrary to this view, neoliberal education is commodified and helps students dominated by individualism to be consumers of an educational product the purpose of which is intended to better their economic condition (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004)

Methods and Data Sources

The sample for this study consisted of 2 faculty members and 40 students. Students vary in demographic backgrounds, age, race, and ethnicity. Data sources included reflexive journals, recorded class sessions and meetings, students’ questionnaires, and student feedback collected through “exit tickets.” We engaged in online regular meetings to debrief and analyse all sources of data and made notes of the exchanges that revealed the intricate nature of students' racial-ethnic identity and how it affected their academic identity.
Results
The salient features of this study revealed that students’ identities had multiple factors that emerged differently after the shift to virtual instruction. Identity factors such as immigration, ethnicity, social class, and first-generation status intersected with one another in complex ways and heavily influenced students’ perceptions as evidenced in their statements. While some identity factors intersected in empowering ways, others lent themselves to marginalizing effects. Teachers struggled with how to minimize the negative impact for students affected. Teachers examined their pedagogical practices to reduce these disparities and prevent student disenfranchised. Yet, when acknowledging that there can be no equality without due consideration to issues of access and equity, ethical considerations and concerns emerged.
Scholarly significance
By moving to virtual classrooms the vulnerabilities of students of color were amplified, which led to an examination of the embodied nature of care and how it manifests in online virtual environments since care is situated at the center of most, if not all, of our moral, ethical, or professional responsibilities as educators. While teachers’ care-based pedagogical approaches can help minimize some of the negative effects, this study revealed the need for societal and university structures to play a larger role in the responsibility of fostering social justice.

Author

• Charity M. Dacey, Felician University