Ethics in Higher Education: Red Flags and Grey Areas

Abstract

Although many professional organizations have adopted formal and well-established codes of ethics (e.g. the Canadian Psychological Association, the American Medical Association), the academic profession has not. Furthermore, while there have been articles written about ethics in higher education, there has not been a thorough analysis of feminist contributions to this literature, or sufficient attention to matters related to, for instance, race, class and/or sexuality, and how these factors intersect with age and academic rank in determining the parameters of ethical dilemmas. This article is a step toward promoting discussion about the usefulness of an academic code of ethics in college and university settings. We rely on a code of ethics developed by the Feminist Therapy Institute, as well as a step-by-step decision-making framework to demonstrate how open forums and self-reflexivity about, for example, professional boundaries, conflict resolution and oppression, will help expand and redefine notions of academic freedom. This discussion is especially fitting as distance learning models and computer technology have compelled educators to reassess their working assumptions about teaching and learning. Examples of how to apply a model of feminist ethics and a decision-making framework to common ethical dilemmas are provided.