Ethics

Ranga - weave, unite, merge, connect, bond, join.

The 'ranga' in raranga relates to the concept of joining together or bonding. In the context of review, it can remind us to weave together the process of preparing, gathering, making sense, and deciding with the people who make up our learning community. Being ethical in review requires us to consider the rights of everyone and to ensure that review considers the wellbeing of all participants. At all times, we seek to ensure that everyone is safe.

Effective review leaves everyone feeling heard and valued. We consider the implications of our actions on others, both now and in the future, by recognising our obligation to uphold their rights in all aspects of review.

It is important that everyone in the review process is treated with dignity and respect. The information we gather, the way we analyse the information, and what we find out as a result also need to be treated with the same care. The 4 fundamental principles for teachers that guide us to act ethically are:

• justice
• autonomy
• responsible care
• truth.

(New Zealand Teachers' Council, 2004).

Acting ethically also requires us to consider the factors associated with the context-based relationships (Cullen, 2005) that comprise our learning community:

• culture
• gender
• age
• ethnicity
• community
• geographical location.

These principles and relationship factors are important aspects of ethics, which make up one of the key elements of review.

Principles

Justice

• How are processes fair for everyone?
• Whose views get heard?
• Is there anyone not being head?
• Are processes transparent?
• Do we do what we say we will do?
• Whose permission do we seek?

Autonomy

• In what ways do we ensure that our process enables important issues to be raised?
• Who owns this information and why?

Responsible care

How do we avoid making assumptions about who will be involved, based on gender or age?

Truth

How do we ensure that we gather, analyse, and report the outcomes of our review truthfully whilst doing no harm?

Relationships

Culture

• What is our service culture, and how does it influence the way we go about review?
• Are there aspects of power and privilege that we need to address in our relationships to support review?

Gender and ages

How do we avoid making assumptions about who will be involved, based on gender or age?

Ethnicity

• What do we know about each ethnic group in our service, and how do we work appropriately with each group?
• How do we ensure that the special rights of tangata whenua are upheld?

Community

What are our unique relationship obligations within our local community and the various groups that we belong to?

Geographical location

What are the unique aspects of our location that might influence the way we go about review?