Ethics 5B AND 5C

Reading up about ethics made me think back to my Religious Studies A level that I carried out as we studied Ethics as one of the topics.

Theoretical approaches to ethics really interests me. 

• Consequentialism- Act is only good if it maximises the good. Depends on the outcome (JS Mill and Jeremy Bentham) 
• Deontology- The motive behind an action determine whether or  not it is morally right. (Immanuel Kant) 
• Virtue Ethics- emphasises the character of the moral agent rather than the rules or consequences. what the action reveals about you. (Plato and Aristotle) 

Looking at these approaches from a dance teachers point of view i came up with this example: 

A teacher making a student sit out as they are being disruptive to the class. If i was the teacher in this class and child was being disruptive sitting them out may maximise the good of the overall class, this would be taking a consequentialism view. However someone who follows the Deontology approach may argue that it is not morally right to make that child sit out. Virtue Ethics may conclude that you are willing to sacrifice one child's learning for others, does this make you a bad person? 

This opened up my eyes to appreciate more how everyone has different beliefs and values and as a professional you must respect these at all times. 

In this industry ethics comes into respecting performance choices and choreographic ideas and styles and respect that everyone is unique. 

Professionalism, responsibility, respect policies and rules and regulations. I have just started a new dance teacher job and there is a set of rules which I will have to abide too, some of these are not what I have had to have done before but it Is my ethical duty to understand that these rules have been placed there for the greater good and different societies and groups have different views and different ways of doing things.

Team work and supporting peers is also a very important ethical value.

Ethics also comes into discussion when professional dancers are asked to work for free. This is not ethical, the employee should respect that the performer is a professional and should respect there abilities and talents as they would any other professional. You wouldn't expect a school teacher or doctor to work for free. 

ISTD CODE OF CONDUCT is something after researching that i forgot to put in my initial blog about ethics. Again this is a set of rules that dance teachers enrolled with the ISTD must abide to. 

'Ethics, as a formal field of philosophical enquiry is the philosophical study of morality

and moral issues are imbued with questions of value. Morals and ethics are

entwined and moral issues raise normative questions as opposed to factual ones.'

Ethics relating to my Inquiry 

My Inquiry is a very personal topic as i am discussing the psychological problems caused from the pressures of the industry and how we can cope so ethics will be very important. 

Data protection and confidentiality will be extremely important as well as making sure that i don't make my participates feel pressured to answer things they do not feel comfortable answering. 

I will have to make sure that i respect that every one is different and has different values and different ways of thinking and coping. 

Making sure i gain correct permission from all the participates will also be very important.