Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/growing-ethical-leadership-in-early-education/5024436/
Each and every day that we work with young children as leaders and educators, we are called to an ethical practice. As we make decisions for and about the children in our care, our work becomes increasingly ethical, calling for us to consider our ethical identities and levels of professionalism (Giovacco-Johnson, 2011). Thus, there is a need for critical reflection that carries us beyond our codes of ethics and standards of practice (although these are notably vital to our work as well).
Our current landscape of child care calls us to think more deeply about our profession. In Ontario, Canada, for example, we are experiencing times of change, progression, and acceptance of the imperative to invest in the early years, though we still struggle with what Martha Friendly (2015) refers to as a patchwork system of care. With child care spaces for 24.1 percent of Canadian children, despite 73.5 percent of Canadian mothers employed in the workforce (Savigny, 2017), and child care fees for a year, in some areas, exceeding the costs of university fees (Kozicka, 2016), Canadian families face three large challenges around child care: accessibility, affordability and quality. Such systematic challenges press us to consider an overarching ethical question: ...