The GTCE is about to put in place a new Code of Conduct and Practice for teachers and headteachers. General feeling about the new code is that it is very vague and therefore open to differing interpretation and possible abuse. There is a lot of scope for it to step outside the regulation of teachers in their professional lives and probe too far into their personal lives, potentially making the separation of work and life more difficult to attain for teachers, and introducing the possibility of an 'always on call' attitude towards members of the teaching profession. This should not be the case; teachers should be entitled to a private life outside of work.
The NASUWT teaching union is organising a petition to the GTCE to call for the withdrawal and a rethink of the new GTCE Code of Conduct and Practice for teachers and head teachers. You do not have to be a member of the GTCE or NASUWT, or even a teaching professional to be able to sign the petition.
The NASUWT's stance on this is as follows:
"The NASUWT believes that the new Code of Conduct and Practice, due to come into force in October 2009, intrudes into teachers' personal lives and fundamentally undermines their basic human rights. None of the Union's main concerns, as detailed in our comprehensive response on the Code of Conduct and Practice, have been addressed.
The new Code of Conduct and Practice is riddled with vague statements that are open to wide interpretation and abuse, putting teachers' jobs and careers at risk. Although the Council has adopted the Code, it is important teachers register their concern and call for the GTCE to withdraw and rethink this Code."
Please take a moment to consider this situation and then sign the NASUWT petition online at http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/SelectSurveyNET/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=74KJ3m2 .
I'm copying the comments over from the same post on my Facebook profile as it's easier to respond here! I have copied & pasted with minimal editing to change full names for initials only to preserve privacy (and to change my contributions to 'Teakay' for consistency in this blog) and to consolidate posts that have been split due to character limits in the original comments.
ReplyDeleteHM
"I actually aggree with it, i know the country needs more teachers, but it needs more good teachers. While everyone is assessed to some degree by their employer some bad teachers still slip through the net for whatever reason. If assessment on a more frequent basis and by indpendant people then from what i see, the bad teachers will either have to... Read more improve to keep their jobs or lose their licence to teach. Yes, some may only improve for the duration of the assessment, but surely anything that rids the system of poor performers is a good thing. An education is after all one thing that every child has, to one degree or another, and one day those children are the ones going to be running the country so the better educated they are the better?
I may not have understood the code correctly, but from what i do understand i can only see it as a positive thing."
Teakay
"What I, and many other people, disagree with is the holes in the code that may (will) allow them to extend their reach even further into our private lives. I'm all for improving teaching as a profession, obviously, but there's a limit to how much of a person's life that you can reasonably expect a job to take over. We will end up having to be ... Read moreteachers 24/7, and I for one don't want that. I want to be a teacher at school between the hours of 8am and 6pm. I don't want to have to come home and be a teacher as well, or be a teacher when I'm shopping in Tesco. The arguments are NOT with improving the standards of teachers at work. The arguments ARE with the GTCE continuing to reach beyond its remit and encroach upon the private lives of teachers, and the new Code of Practice is so vague it allows them to do that."
JC
"Here here!"
JO
"I challenge all who read this to write a more concise version that works. I have in mind a 3 paragraph 'code'. I am working on thinning down my first draft but I bet others could do it beeter."
Teakay
"I think that's the biggest problem- it's wishy washy, poorly defined, end of the day, lets finish it off quickly so we can go home tripe. It leaves the door open for misinterpretation and, as you point out, doesn't cover a number of (in my mind, and evidently yours) the more important aspects of professional conduct and responsibilities with regards to teaching."
JO
ReplyDelete"How about an honest, simple set of statements...
We the GTC represent the Teaching profession. In order to help boost recognition of Teaching as a profession we advocate a code of professional conduct. We reservethe right to withdraw any person's license to teach in the UK if the GTC finds significant (and/or repetitive) breaches of the code of conduct
1) As a working Teacher
All teachers will meet or exceed the relevant 'professional standards' as published by the TDA at the time.
All teachers will undertake 20 hours per year of Personal CPD.
All teachers will obey the laws of the country they are in and for periods they are responsible for students they will ensure that students also follow those laws or the teacher will take appropriate action.
All teachers will support other school staff, whether teachers or not, in maintaining a positive workplace for learning.
2) In other roles but Recognised as a Teacher
This may be in non teaching roles within a school or roles outside of it where the individual's teaching credentials may have influenced their position or the person uses their Teacher status as part of a statement or action.
All teachers will demonstrate values of honesty, equality of opportunity and non-violent action.... Read more
All teachers will obey the laws of the country they are in and for periods they are responsible for students/pupils/young or vulnerable people they will ensure that students also follow those laws or the teacher will take appropriate action.
3) As a private citizen who is also a teacher.
The private life of a teacher is their own, even to the extent of breaking the laws of the land. However the GTC reserve the right to reconsider an individual's right to Teach in the UK if notable activity calls into question a Teacher's commitment to values of honesty, equality of opportunity and non-violent action."
I would agree with most of your proposed statements, but I still have a couple of issues:
ReplyDelete"All teachers will meet or exceed the relevant 'professional standards' as published by the TDA at the time."
This must be the goal for all teachers, but it should be recognised that it is not necessarily the case that all teachers meet the given standards at all times. Maybe a re-wording to the effect that if a teacher isn't currently meeting the standards they should be able to display evidence that they are being proactive with regards to rectifying this within a specified timescale.
"All teachers will undertake 20 hours per year of Personal CPD."
I'm all for this, personally, but without caveats placing certain amounts of responsibility for this on the school/LA it runs the risk of dumping inordinate amounts of extra work onto a significant proportion of this country's teachers. For example, as it stands undertaking 20 hours of (officially recognised, I'm assuming) CPD in the circumstances of certain people I know would be laughable- their current employer does not seem to be particularly enamoured with the idea of spending time or funds on CPD opportunities for the majority of its staff. This would mean that the larger part of those 20 hours would have to be undertaken in their own 'spare' time and funded by their own pocket.