Ethical Dilemma - Use of Social Media
Our personal and professional lives are increasingly dominated by the pressure to connect virtually with networks of people that we may or may not know in real life to develop or strengthen relationships and build connections.
There are many advantages in using social media platforms, and so many of them available now. We have a vast range of platforms allowing us to share, vent, educate, question and entertain. This graphic (taken for the EDUCANZ website) shows the range of forums and purposes available to us.
(Retrieved from http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-media - EDUCNZ)
Our story
Our decision as a school to start using social media was a considered one and responsive to our desire to have some influence over and control of our online presence. We wanted to establish the boundaries for use and expectations for users, rather than have something develop outside of our control that didn't reflect the values and standards of our school community. We had seen many school Facebook pages being set up by community members, with no input from the school itself, and misrepresenting the school in its current form. Often these were a forum for complaints about the school of old, but negatively impacted the current school staff and leadership.
We wanted to avoid this scenario and achieve two things - provide a forum for discussion and sharing of information and a platform to share student experiences and work.
However, as is often the case, the process for designing our school strategy for the use of social media came in response to a difficult situation.
Our Dilemna
This situation arose from a situation where a member of staff was publicly criticised on a parents Facebook page. The parent concerned had a history of emotional, unpredictable, public and aggressive outbursts that were often directed at me or my staff. After one particularly difficult episode she took to Facebook to vent her concerns. Despite having opportunity to speak to us, she was not satisfied with the outcome of the discussion. We felt we had addressed the concerns with the mother and ensured that the issues raised were addressed in a fair and transparent process, as per the complaints policy in the school. However the whole process was undermined by the subsequent post. As her page was fundamentally a public page, her views were shared widely and without challenge. The content of the post was factually inaccurate, biased and potentially damaging to the school.
As a school we needed to decide what action we would take once this was brought to our attention. We also needed to decide how we would support the staff member named in the online rant. We had to determine whether there was a case for defamation, if it was worth pursuing, and what the cost to all parties would be - student, staff, school and parent.
We followed a process very similar to the one described in Alan Hall's 2001 paper:
This situation arose from a situation where a member of staff was publicly criticised on a parents Facebook page. The parent concerned had a history of emotional, unpredictable, public and aggressive outbursts that were often directed at me or my staff. After one particularly difficult episode she took to Facebook to vent her concerns. Despite having opportunity to speak to us, she was not satisfied with the outcome of the discussion. We felt we had addressed the concerns with the mother and ensured that the issues raised were addressed in a fair and transparent process, as per the complaints policy in the school. However the whole process was undermined by the subsequent post. As her page was fundamentally a public page, her views were shared widely and without challenge. The content of the post was factually inaccurate, biased and potentially damaging to the school.
As a school we needed to decide what action we would take once this was brought to our attention. We also needed to decide how we would support the staff member named in the online rant. We had to determine whether there was a case for defamation, if it was worth pursuing, and what the cost to all parties would be - student, staff, school and parent.
We followed a process very similar to the one described in Alan Hall's 2001 paper:
- Which stakeholder should be given priority? Why?
- What restrictions are there to your actions?
- Which courses of action are possible?
- How should the course of action be implemented?
- the school's responsibility as an employer to support and safeguard the professional reputation and welfare of the staff member (with reference to employment law, employment agreements, and HR policy)
- the school's public reputation
- the ongoing relationship with the child and the extended whanau on both sides
- acknowledging mental health concerns for the mother, focusing on the safety of her child.
Our greatest concern was for the safety of the child - we felt that if we challenged the mother, we could potentially negatively influence her state of mind and put the child at risk.
The staff member named was not supportive of taking legal action, and felt that nothing positive could be achieved for any of those involved by going down that path. The Board was of the opinion that continuing the conversation online would only add fuel to the debate, and that our best defence was the positive stories and public support of our own community.
Our decision was to maintain a 'dignified silence' in response. In the end there were no more posts on the topic, the mother removed her child from the school as her rental arrangements changed, and peace returned. As it often does.
However it was a difficult situation for those concerned and challenged our understandings of online communities, conflict resolution and process.
However it was a difficult situation for those concerned and challenged our understandings of online communities, conflict resolution and process.
How this influenced us
We had at first considered social media as simply a platform for sharing good news, school
events and student work. It was a 'feel good' news service.
We had at first considered social media as simply a platform for sharing good news, school
events and student work. It was a 'feel good' news service.
This situation brought to our attention the opportunity to provide a forum for us to 'front - foot' issues within our school. Social media was not just an opportunity to share student work and events, it was a platform for us as a school to address trends, share expectations and set boundaries with our community before they impacted negatively on any future relationship. It made clear to us that we needed to be in control of how our school was represented on social media. We needed a platform that allowed us to present ourselves positively and fairly. We now have a moderated and private Facebook page that allows us to own the conversations about our school, and foster the positive relationships that then are reinforced on community public pages. We are able to set the parameters of what is appropriate and provide a model for acceptable online conversation with our community. They now self-monitor this and any posts regarding a specific incident are referred by other members of the parent community to the school leadership, rather than being discussed online.
This incident had implications for us in terms of policy and procedure, as well as practice. At the point of this issue arising, we had no formal policy in relation to social media in our school. We applied the complaints policy to our response, and this was somewhat successful, although did not capture the challenges of working in an online environment. We now have a cyber safety policy, and are developing a clause within that relates to the use of social media that will cross reference to our employment induction processes.
We have a lot of online presence now and are using a range of platforms to achieve all the goals of our online vision:
We have a lot of online presence now and are using a range of platforms to achieve all the goals of our online vision:
- to provide a way to share student voice, learning, achievements and events
- to provide a forum for supporting professional learning
- to provide a forum to educate and inform our community about school culture and learning theory
Education Council of Aotearoa NZ - http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/
Netsafe - https://www.netsafe.org.nz/resourcesschoolleaderseducators/
Hall, A. (2001) What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane.
Netsafe - https://www.netsafe.org.nz/resourcesschoolleaderseducators/
Hall, A. (2001) What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane.
Duignan, P. (2003, September). Formation of capable, influential and authentic leaders for times of uncertainty. Paper presented at the Australian Primary Principals’ Association National Conference, Adelaide.
Hey
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed reading your blog about the ethics in digital practice. Your blog is very thoughtful and I can see that you've really unpicked the dilemma in a theoretical manner. I think all schools and teachers can directly relate to your issue. We have had similar situations happen at our school and previous schools I've worked at. It's so important for the right policies and procedures to be in place so that all stakeholders are protected from harm. As Educators it's so important to be digital citizens and we need to show our class and community of learners how to be digitally responsible. Good luck with the rest of your studies.
Kind Regards
Janine
I agree Janine. It is really important that we teach our students how to be digital citizens and ensure they know the boundaries. I think with 21st Century learning it is really important that we ensure our students have the skills to be responsible citizens. I teach Year 1/2 and we use Hectors World to introduce digital citizenship to the students. The children really enjoy this and are engaged. Your blog post got me thinking about the flip side and the idea of teachers and parents on social media. I think this is something that needs to be considered more.
DeleteThe dilemma you have explored in this post definitely made me consider another side of social media in an education context. The tendency is to consider children's access, or even public and private personas created by teachers in online forums. I would imagine that many schools don't unnecessarily consider the implications of parental use of social media, particularly when it can contribute to the public image of a school. As you have mentioned in your post, it can be contribute to building a positive public profile, but it only takes one disgruntled parent to change this. It's an interesting dilemma because as a school you have little if any control over what members of the wider school community post on their social media networks, and yet the damage that can be caused has the potential for some significant and serious outcomes. I think that the approach you took as a school in this situation was sensible and I was happy to read that it turned out for the best. Thank you for sharing this with us, it has definitely given me something to think about and share with others on the leadership team back in my own school context.
ReplyDeleteWow, I was shocked to hear how a parent used FB to malign a teacher. This was a clear example of cyber bullying. Well done to the school for not responding (I don't know if I could have kept mum if it was me). With the prolific use of social media, schools have to be on top of things and be prepared for such incidents. I love the fact that your parent community reports any incidents straight to the school. Schools have to take charge of how they are portrayed in social media rather than have a biased third party do so. Great blog. Gave me lots of food for thought.
ReplyDelete