Please sit so you can talk in small groups

Whose side are you on: Balancing the interests of different partners within professional experience. Helen McDonald School of Education James Cook University

Plan Ongoing challenges and current context Multiple perspectives and rights in professional experience Ethical dilemmas in professional experience Conclusion

According to the Principal, Sydney Teachers’ College, 1932 “Students numbers also put pressure on practicing and demonstration schools, so that in some instances, they were overloaded with trainees … More critically, in that it was less open to administrative solutions, there were problems with the quality of school teaching staff appointed to supervise students’ practice, and with the quality of their supervision. (Vick, 2006)

Previous NAFEA conference notes (and Top of the Class): the shortage of places the variable quality of supervisor/ mentors the inadequacy of funding for professional experience, including the burden of students financing their own placements away from their homes.

Life for life for students in 21st century Average 25 hours work per week Casual positions: No annual leave or sick leave Less job security No guarantee for the number of hours they work – variable earnings/ variable hours Less say – Less pay Increased number of single parents. Children will always be first priority- Centrelink policies Mature age students supported by partners. Generation Y

All Australia JCU Total 844,48012, 327 (1.55%) Female 55%64% Indigenous 1.2%2.8% Students with disability 3.6%4.3% Remote 1.25%8% Rural 17%41% NESB 3.6%1.1% Women in non- traditional areas 20%14% Low SES 14%23% International 22%10.8% Postgrad 25.2%14.5% Part-time 30%25% First-generation uni students Student groups at JCU: diversity a goal - and an issue

Other factors Students as consumers - universities as service providers/ businesses Political context Teacher education - myriad of inquiries Top of class - recommendations to improve quality of professional experience - government response - increase number of days Nurse education - Proposed return to hospital-based training Professional standards

Now the elephants

Multiple perspectives/ multiple stakeholders industry university student

Ethics and professional experience placements Multiple perspectives Limited placements High stakes assessment Conflicting rights Ethical dilemmas

Over to you: Identify three or four key stakeholders in field placements and list what you consider their rights are in the field placement context Where is there a potential for conflict?

Ethical dilemmas Either doing what is ethically right a bad outcome or bad effects results in Either doing what is ethically wrong good or at least better outcome or effects results in

Dilemmas: cases Under what circumstances do we provide information about student’s past experiences? Who do we send “good” students?/ Who do we send challenging students? Is there anything “special” about international or Indigenous students?

Over to you: Spend a couple of minutes discussing ethical dilemmas you may have faced then decides on one dilemma/ scenario to share with other groups. Write the dilemma/ scenario down and pass it on to another group How would you “solve” your new dilemma?

According to St James Centre for Ethics What are the relevant facts? Which of my values make these facts significant? What assumptions am I making? What are the weaknesses in my own position? Would I be happy for my actions to be open to public scrutiny? Would I be happy if my family knew what I'd done? What will doing this do to my character or the character of my organisation? What would happen if everybody took this course of action? How would I feel if my actions were to impact upon my child or parent? Have I really thought through the issues? Have I considered the possibility that the ends may not justify the means?

If ethics is about practical rather than purely theoretical matters, it should also be understood that it encompasses a general conversation about how people should live a ‘good’ life. A consideration of ethical questions involves a consideration of the quality and nature of relationships with other people.

Back to the elephant Reconciling different perspectives will only come through ongoing conversations between all professional experience stakeholders The ethical danger for those of us “in” professional experience is that we see ourselves as the narrator of the story, rather than just one of the many participants, also able to gain a better understanding of the elephant by hearing the perspective of others

Finally for thought Our duty is to do what is right; but as a practical matter, we would just as soon have things turn out as well as possible - as Machiavelli says in The PrinceMachiavelli

and … without professional experience/ field placement officers, there would be no professional degrees.