Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

We ask parents to give us permission to publish images (still and moving), displaying pieces of work (multimedia, written, musical etc) on school sites or in newsletters/publications. Most parents give their permission but some parents don’t, for very good reasons.

The requirement to honour the wishes of those parents creates an ethical dilemma for teachers because we want to share the fantastic things happening at school. However, deciding whether to post a picture of students taking part in a school-wide event, like the school Triathlon, becomes quite an undertaking, as a student with restricted permission could be in the photo.  Our school does have a document which indicates the permission levels for each class, but few teachers know all student in a school, let alone knowing in which class they are to do a quick check.  

A teacher may email photos to staff to check before he/she post it online and if nobody objects, goes ahead with posting the photos.

Potential issues with this:

• Did his/her colleagues get enough time to respond?
• Were his/her colleagues in a position to respond? Someone could be sick, or unable to check emails for whatever reason.
• Images of students could actually be posted online against their parents’ wishes/ instructions.

Posting a photo against parents ‘ wishes will violate our code of ethics, which requires teachers to show commitment to parents/guardians, and the family/whānau by respecting their right to privacy Teachers recognise they work in collaboration with the parents/guardians and family/whānau of learners, encouraging their active involvement in the education of their children. They acknowledge the rights of caregivers to consultation on the welfare and progress of their children and respect lawful parental authority (The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers).

Potential negative consequences for the teacher and the school:

• This could compromise the trust the parents have in the school to care for their child - Responsible care to do good and minimise harm to others is a fundamental principle that governs interactions of teachers. (The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers)
• This could compromise the respectful relationships the school wants to build and maintain with the parent and the community.
• This could negatively affect relations between colleagues as the teacher who could not access emails, could then be involved in an unpleasant situation.
• This could negatively affect the relationship between the student and the teachers, which will affect student’s learning. The code of ethics requires teachers to develop and maintain professional relationships with learners based upon the best interests of those learners. As well as promote the emotional wellbeing of learners.
• News of this could spread and mobilise more parents against the school, which could turn ugly.

To prevent this, it may seem easier not to bother with posting school-wide photos at all, which has happened.

A better option may be to keep a record of students with restricted cyber-permission and include a recent photograph of each student. As the number of these students are usually low, it should make it easier to be checked by the teacher involved, without the need to involve everyone.