Professional Ethics

 One of the ideals that I chose was from the Excerpt: NAEYC, (2004). NAEYC advocacy toolkit (page 5) spoke of “Responsibility to co –workers.” The section spoke of behavior of a co-worker, and “that we shall first let that person know of our concern in a way that shows respect for personal dignity and for the diversity to be found among staff members, and then attempt to resolve the matter in a confidential manner.” The reason this code of ethics is meaningful to me is because in my current place of employment there was a person that was hired that was not showing any personal dignity to their job. This person chose to say things about families both after home visits as well as after phone calls. I spoke with this person on several occasions explaining that there was a lack of respect. This person continued to be very disrespectful as well as degrading toward the families and even co-workers. I felt that I needed to follow the chain of command and took my concerns to the director of our program. The director had a talk with this person and within days they resigned their position. I feel that knowing how to handle this situation helped me out. My co –workers looked to me for guidance and directions. I was glad I could assist in this situation.

The second ideal that I chose was again from the Excerpt: NAEYC, (2004). NAEYC advocacy toolkit (page 2), “to be familiar with the knowledge base of early childhood care and education and to stay informed through continuing education and training.” I chose this code of ethics because it is our foundation for everything we do. Staff must understand the basics to build on them to be able to teach families and children. The knowledge I gained in Early Childhood care and education was in my undergrad studies. I know the program that employs me will hire only persons with a degree in Human Services, Early Childhood, and/ or Child Development. The town I live in currently has three colleges, two of which have very good Early Childhood programs. Lots of students’ complete practicums at our center and them later hire on as full time employees.

The third ideal I chose was from, “The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics.”  “We shall engage in ongoing and systematic reflective inquiry and self-assessment for the purpose of continuous improvement of professional performance and services to young children with disabilities and their families.” I again feel the program where I am employed does a great job of ongoing self-assessments. The program is always continuing to look for improvements of the program. This is done through self- assessments as well as professional assessments each employee completes several times a year. We complete professional development goals yearly and question our families on improvement of the program.

Upon completing this paper I do not in any way want it to sound like the program I work for is perfect, by no means is this the case, but I was amazed at all the areas that the supervisors strive for and achieve in the program. There is always room for future growth and development and I am sure that will continue but right now they seem to have a pretty good handle on things. I feel like that is why I want to continue working for such a great program.

REFERENCES:

Excerpt: NAEYC. (2004). NAEYC advocacy toolkit. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/policy/toolkit.pdf

·         Article: The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
http://www.dec-sped.org/