Ethical Scenarios

[WLO: 3] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4]

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment (Links to an external site.).

Thosewho work with young children often face difficult ethical decisions.You are realizing your center has various situations that compromise thecode, but unfortunately your lead teacher and a few others within thecenter don’t see the issues the same way you do. They have given you theopportunity to justify your rationale and create a potential plan torectify the situations.

Review the scenarios below and choose two situations to rationalize and resolve for your lead teacher and colleagues. Use the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment (Links to an external site.)as a guide to make recommendations and identify rationale. There arefour areas of ethical responsibilities: children, families, colleagues,and community and society. Be sure to select scenarios from differentareas.

Scenarios:

#1: Your center has a rule that no outsidefood is to be brought in for snack or lunch for a child under anycircumstances. While your weekly menus often support the diverse needsof the learners, you now have a student who has extreme sensitivitiesand allergies. When trying to create the menu, you are realizing thatthe other students would need to eat unbalanced meals and would beginlacking the proper nutrition. You have asked your teacher about thisrule to see if it can be changed for this situation and she said no.

#2:One child is having a hard time adjusting to class and his mom wouldlike to stay a little bit longer in the beginning of class to help himget familiar and comfortable. You were allowing this and it was workingvery well, however your director has now told you that this is notallowed. Parents are required to drop off their kids and leaveimmediately after.

#3: A little girl is having issues with anotherlittle boy in the class. They often fight with each other and recentlyshe told you that he always tries to touch her and watch her in thebathroom and she doesn’t like it. You took this very seriously, howeveryour director told you that she is only five years old so it’s nothingto worry about. You believe you should contact both parents in thissituation, but the director argues that the parents will think youaren’t doing a good job watching them.

#4: You have a few childrenin your class with various cultures and religions. Some of theseconflict directly with the holiday calendar that your teacher hascreated. You’ve asked your teacher if you can modify the activities tohelp bring in all of the cultures of the families and she turned youdown. One parent has let you know that they have issues with Christmasdue to their own religion, however your teacher said, “this is the wayit’s always been.”

#5: You proposed curriculum surrounding mannersand helping others. You believe this curriculum is important for theage you are working with, as a lot of the kids don’t seem to understandthe basic principles. Your teacher isn’t open to the change, but you areseeing more and more selfish behaviors and think this type ofcurriculum could really make an impact on their lives. Most of your kidscome from families where parents work at least two jobs, so you believethey just don’t have the time to teach their kids these basicprinciples.

To complete your assignment, identify each component below for each scenario:

• Summaryof the scenario and justification that proves how this situation isunethical (rely heavily on the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct andStatement of Commitment here and point to specific principles within thecode).
• Identify appropriate resources to use for the scenario and the individuals necessary to inform.
• Create a plan to not only solve the problem now, but also to prevent it from occurring again in the future.

In your paper,

• Include an introduction and a conclusion.
• Summarize both scenarios and the specific code numbers that were compromised within the scenarios.
• Identify the proper individuals necessary to inform.
• Determine appropriate resources for both scenarios.
• Explain the steps necessary to problem solve each scenario.

The Ethical Scenarios Paper

• Mustbe three to five double-spaced pages in length (not including title andreferences pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined inthe Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
• Mustinclude an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introductionparagraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates thepurpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least two credible sources in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.)table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If youhave questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for thisassignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has thefinal say about the appropriateness of a specific source for aparticular assignment.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
• Mustinclude a separate references page that is formatted according to APAstyle as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.