Axis 4. Professional ethics and deontology for the teaching profession

“What is ethics, if not the practice of freedom, the conscious practice of freedom?”

(Foucault, 1984)

Although the concepts of professional ethics and deontological ethics for the teaching profession are often used interchangeably, there are easily distinguishable.

“Deontological ethics comprises a series of moral principles and ethical ways of acting in a professional environment. It is part of what we call applied ethics insofar as it intends, on the one hand, to apply the principles of general ethics to each sphere of professional action. But on the other hand, given that each activity is different and specific, it includes one’s own good, goals, values, and habits in each field of professional action.”

(Bolívar, 2005, p. 96)

Thus, professional ethics includes one’s own good, goals, values, and habits in the teacher’s field of action. On the other hand, deontology is the part of ethics that deals with the duties and obligations that affect the teaching profession and are articulated in a set of rules. Professional ethics is therefore not limited to deontological ethics, to a set of norms that govern the behaviour of those who carry out the educational action, although it can and must take into account the relevant contributions that come from the different professional ethics that have been elaborated so far (Martínez, 2010).

The ethical shift in education in Spain during the 1990s, as elucidated by Ibáñez-Martín (2015), is closely linked to the proliferation of ethical codes within the teaching profession, which have been developed by diverse groups of professional educators. The common goal of these documents is to reassess the professionalism of educators based on the idea that every professional demands knowledge, know-how and ethical knowledge to endorse their action in society (Fuentes, 2020, p. 73). However, Fuentes (2020) points out the need to assume the regulatory role of these documents as an instrument that generates a professional ethos based on the autonomy of moral judgment and professional competence of the teacher. Far removed from the technical understanding of the role of the teacher, the typification of norms and guidelines of action through ethical codes seeks to leave nothing to chance and the need to decide.

In this regard, although knowledge and compliance with ethical codes are essential requirements for the teaching profession, rather than recognizing rules and submitting to codes, it is critical, as a key component of professional identity, to develop ethics of responsibility or co-responsibility. These can guide the teaching action and enable the teacher to apply, with autonomy, the principles of general ethics to solve specific situations or moral dilemmas they encounter while teaching (Apel, 1992). It is not, therefore, a question of comprehending a series of external ethical values and patterns of thought, but rather of learning them, making them their own and incorporating them into their professional practice in a meaningful way (Martínez et al., 2002, p. 26).