Our Stance

It is in our personal and professional opinion that Miss Hawkins has acted inappropriately. Even as Pre Service Teachers (PST) with an evolving pedagogical stance on education revolving around building positive relationships with students, we really do believe you must draw a line with both your personal and professional life. Miss Hawkins has seemed to overstep the ‘line’ in this case.

There is no doubting social media has a heavy presence in society today, so it is important that educators identify both the correct and incorrect ways to use it. It can be a tricky situation to judge with certain aspects of Australian educational regulations being somewhat subjective and can be interpreted differently from one individual to another.

It is our belief that if Miss Hawkins wished to use Facebook, or any social media, for class purposes she should treat her profiles as a professional platform; strictly regulating the information that she chooses to share. By failing to do so Miss Hawkins has put the school’s reputation at risk as well as her own reputation amongst parents, students and colleagues.

The Issue

The scenario that has been provided sees a young female teacher receiving a Facebook invite to a ‘local rave party’ from two of her male year 9 students. It is of interest to note that the invite to this party was advertised publicly, and as mentioned the party was local, so it is possible that being an ‘avid partygoer’ Miss Hawkins may still have seen the event invitation through her own Facebook and decided to click ‘attending’. Such a scenario would certainly bring into question a variety of issues, as to the ethical duty of teachers at public events.

This, however, is not that case that we are looking at. It happens that Miss Hawkins had two students, which were in her duty of care, send her an invite to a party, which she then accepted.

The other issue that we are looking at is Miss Hawkins actual Facebook profile; which was set to public and depicted personal images of her at ‘clubs and parties’.

In addressing these issues we will consider the conduct of Miss Hawkins through reference to professional frameworks, which are put in place to shape and guide the actions of professional educators.

We will assess whether the actions of Miss Hawkins crosses the line between professional and personal behaviour, the appropriateness of her public Facebook profile, and the possible violation of principles set out in relevant frameworks.

The Case Study

Social media and electronic communication in general have become the norm when it comes to sharing information and communication, hence it is important that teachers and students understand the unwritten rules and ethical dilemmas related to communication via web2.0 technologies to prevent unwanted consequences. The following scenario provides an example of an ethical dilemma related to the use of online social networks between teachers and students.

Miss Hawkins has recently joined Grenville High School as a History Teacher. She was very excited to be appointed after graduation and looked forward to doing an excellent job in engaging and motivating her students. She encouraged the use of new technologies and was interested in how social media can enhance the learning experiences of secondary school students. It did not take long before her students found her public Facebook page with photos taken of Miss Hawkins at clubs and parties. Two boys from a year 9 class thought that Miss Hawkins was a really cool teacher and they invited her via her Facebook account to join a local rave party. An avid partygoer, Miss Hawkins accepted this invitation via Facebook post that was publicly available.

We will be focusing on the above scenario over the next few posts. Our contributors, Sarah Khazaal, Leila Koren , Sarah Frendo, and Mark D'Alessandro will all be weighing in on how a situation like this can be explored within various teaching frameworks. Happy reading!

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