Professional Ethics for Higher Education Teachers

Professionals are required to practice value-based ethical behavior in their professional and personal lives to achieve perpetual prosperity and happiness for maximum possible number of people. However, appropriate professional behavior is possible only when professionals have a clear understanding of self and appreciation of importance of working with harmony at various level of existence. Professionals are also supposed to take care of social issues and environmental protection while working for economic development and well-being of their clients. This module therefore, attempts to develop understanding that for achieving sustainable prosperity and happiness in life, it is important to accept the concept of co-existence and need of harmony at different levels of existence such as self, family, society and nature. This understanding is more required for professionals as compared to other occupations and therefore this module strives to explain that what makes ‘Profession’ different from other occupations. In this context it is important that appreciation for values, professional ethics and sustainability should become necessary component of any professional education. For this to happen, it is essential that teachers in professional education system themselves first understand the importance of universally accepted values and the need of self-exploration as the process for value education and for appreciation of ethics. It is also important for teachers to show value-based and ethical professional behavior so that they may become role models for the students and hence expected behavior from a teacher as a ‘Professional’ is also discussed in this module. Since the professionals are at the top of their professions, they are expected to self-regulate themselves, for which the role of professional societies is also highlighted in this module.

Units

1. Higher Education Teachers as Professionals
2. Human Realities and Essentialities of Values and Skills
3. Development of Professional Values, Attitudes and Ethics

Course Outcomes:

1. Practice the roles of ‘Higher Education Teachers as Professionals’ in establishing the 'Guru-Shisya Parampara’ (गुरु शिष्य परंपरा) in present context.
2. Establish the interdependence of the ‘Harmony at Different Levels', 'coexistence' and ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah’ (सर्वेभर्वन्तुसुखिनः)
3. Suggest with justification, ways and means for ensuring ethical behavior by teachers.

Unit wise Contents

Unit 1 Higher Education Teachers as ProfessionalsThis unit details out the basic features of Professionals and distinguishes the professions from other occupations. It also focuses on the minimum requirements in Higher education teachers for becoming good professionals. Further, it also describes, what teachers need to do to acquire these attributes so that they may excel as professionals and may rejuvenate the 'Guru-Shisya Parampara’ (गुरु शिष्य परंपरा) in the modern education system. For transforming from teacher to guru, a teacher has to also work as a mentor and counsellor. Therefore, the approaches for mentoring and counselling are explained. In the last lesson of the unit, it is emphasized that professionals are also required to feel responsible for social concerns related to their field and also work for mitigating these concerns. A detailed description is provided in the associated lessons, i.e.,-L 1. Professions and ProfessionalismL 2. Higher Education Teacher as a Professional: 'Guru-Shisya Parampara' (गुरु शिष्य परंपरा)L 3. Professional ExcellenceL 4. Mentoring and Counselling of University StudentsL 5. Social Responsibility.

Unit 2 Human Realities and Essentialities of Values and Skills for Professionals

Everyone wants to be prosperous and happy in life and so is true for professionals including teachers. It is more important for professionals to remain happy because peace of mind is of utmost necessity for their effectiveness. However, it is difficult for most people to be in a perpetual state of happiness because they have spells of unhappiness in their lives due to some problematic circumstances. But with the right efforts, a mind can be trained to remain happy in any situation. For developing this state of mind, it is required to develop harmony within oneself, family, society and, nature. Moreover, to avoid the negative emotions such as greed, envy, revenge and, fear creeping into the mind, the professionals are required to imbibe in themselves the concept of co-existence. This is beneficial for all,i.e., ‘to live and let live’. In other words, if everyone tries for happiness, not only for oneself but also for others, it will be easier to achieve the state of perpetual happiness for every individual. All of these are interdependent and that is the philosophy of ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina’ (सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः) which is discussed in this unit. A detailed description is provided in the associated lessons. These are-L 6. Human Aspirations: Sustainable Happiness and ProsperityL 7. Harmony with OneselfL 8. Harmony with Family, Society and Nature for Co-existence: ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah’ (सर्वेभर्वन्तु सुखिनः)

Unit 3 Development of Professional Values, Attitudes and Ethics

This unit explains the meaning of values, attitudes and ethics, and techniques for developing values. The importance of self-exploration for developing a good value system is also discussed. Professional values and ethics for higher education teachers are emphasized. Most professionals face ethical conflict in their lives, approaches for resolving such conflicts are explained with the help of case studies. Academic ethics and code of conduct for higher education teachers are described in brief. In the last lesson of this unit role of professional societies in ensuring ethical behaviour by their fellows is explained. A detailed description is provided in the associated lessons-L 9. Understanding of Values, Attitudes and EthicsL 10. Value Education: Need for Self-ExplorationL 11. Professional Values and Ethics for Higher Education TeachersL 12. Ethical Conflict: Case studies of ProfessionalsL 13. Code of Conduct: Academic Ethics and its ImplementationL 14. Role of Professional Societies.