Ethics in my professional community (5A)

Here is a diagram to show the factors I imagine that define decisions in different settings.   What is apparent to me is that all areas personal, societal, organisational and professional decisions are interlinked.   We are defined by our upbringing, social norms and expectations, law, culture and past experience in every aspect of decision making.

I have lived in a few different countries and traveled through dancing and I find that the different views and opinions I am exposed to colours my personal ethics.

For example, I think of my previous view of arranged marriages.    If you had asked me when I was 16 I would have told you how unfair I thought it was.   How could a parent think they could make that decision for a child?   However, we grow in our ideas and understanding and after actually living in countries where this is the norm I have better knowledge of the reality of arranged marriages.   I don't think I am well informed enough to say whether it is 'right' or 'wrong' but I understand the benefits of this practice and why cultures implement it.

Although there will always be a universal 'good' and 'bad' the more I see, the more I think there is only weakness and insecurities that cause people to make wrong decisions.

In my work there are many ethical and moral problems I have to be aware of.   For example, I teach children so there are the obvious ethical implications of protecting child safety.  This can be online, by not making photos videos etc without parent consent and making sure this is not publicly visible online for promotional purposes without the parents signing a disclaimer.  

Also other issues such as not putting myself in a compromised position where a child could say I did something that was an invasion of their privacy.  I think we have to be so careful that what a child says when they go home and speak about class that cannot be misconstrued as misconduct.   I spoke to a colleague and she said she accidentally walked into a 3 year old who was stood behind her, and knocked her with her arm.   The child went home and said she had hit her in the face.   Luckily the parent understood that there was probably more to the story and this was simplified 3 year old speak but I remember it now.  

More complicated are issues when I feel I am compromised between employer expectations and personal ethics.   I feel, and it is like conscience, that I have a responsibility to teach and a responsibility to ensure the good of the majority of a class.   If there is one destructive child, distracting the group it is my job to utilise disciplinary measures so that everyone else can learn.   However, I have had experiences where I have lost ballet students for this and I felt under pressure by my employer to maybe compromise my idea of what I right in the dance studio so that they all have a fun time and keep paying for classes.   I understand the view of a dance studio as a business but it is also a place of education.   I think it is about getting the correct balance between education and fun.