Recent events have caused many educators to consider their future and look back at their life’s work. Many have questioned whether they are valued? In her new webinar, ‘Who you are and what you do’, Catharine Hydon turns the question around and asks: ‘what do you value?’

When you examine what you value, often you’ll see those same values reflected among your colleagues. In a post on ECA’s blog, The Spoke, Catharine Hydon affirms the role of ethics and respect in every aspect of our professional and home lives.

‘We are living and working in extremely uncertain times... it is timely then to remind ourselves that having each other’s back is not only a matter of survival, but it is part of our ethical responsibility to each other as professionals… Let’s take time to encourage each other to adopt and act in accordance with the Code [of Ethics], and credit each other with ethical practice when we see it. Likewise, let’s be courageous and kindly but firmly call out unethical behaviours, so they don’t become a feature of what we remember about this time.’

A code of ethics is a mark of a professional body. It serves as an essential framework, especially during challenging times. For our sector, the ECA Code of Ethics is focused on our interactions and advocacy for educator and child health and safety.

The ECA Code of Ethics highlights the need to advocate for our profession and the provision of quality education and care. It also urges us to take responsibility for articulating our professional values, knowledge, practice and the positive contribution our profession makes to society.

These principles have never been more relevant for children’s lives and our profession. The ECA Code of Ethics can support difficult decision-making, guide ethical actions and communications. It can clarify when other boundaries are blurred. To find out more about using the Code in everyday practice, click here. Or explore this module for ways of approaching difficult conversations. 

Read this free article from Every Child magazine, ‘The ethics of professionalism: The art of doing what is right’.

While fundamental ethics and values persist, many other aspects of professional identity continue to grow throughout a career span. Professional identity is especially forged during the most difficult of experiences and shaped when a team works through challenges together. The tools that help are regular critical reflection (and self-compassion), identifying and approaching a mentor, and regular professional development. The ECA Box of Provocations is a great way to prompt educators, individually or together, to consider complex situations and responses to them.

In the best of times, a defining factor of our profession is that there are no easy answers—whether that’s working with children, families, educators or the wider structures that govern us. So, in the hardest of times, we need to look inwards—at our values, our colleagues and our ethical frameworks—before making important decisions.

The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact the early childhood education and care sector for the foreseeable future. To ask a question or share your story, reach out to ECA by emailing us on: policy@earlychildhood.org.au.