This task asked me to look at my own personal values and how they motivated me to choose this career path.
Questions like this are never easy for me……having to look beneath my first response I give when people ask me ‘why do you want to be a teacher?’. However, I see the importance in understanding my values before I enter my first professional practice.
I guess my first and core value is quality; in all aspects of life. However, in relation to teaching I believe (and so do the Human Rights) that everyone has the right to a good education regardless of their background. Therefore, I knew that this would be one of my core values in the classroom; that I would strive to ensure no child would be subject to stereotypes within education. However, when I began to look at this deeper I realised I couldn’t treat every child equally otherwise those disadvantaged would still be below others. This brings me onto my second value, the importance of equity. I realise now this is what really motivated me to become a teacher. Equality is all good and well in many situations but when you look at education equity is what is important. Equality in the classroom is vital to ensure individual’s abilities are not under estimated due to their race, gender, religion or social background etc. However, when looking at the way you educate children methods cannot all be the same. This would not be giving each child an equal chance to achieve. Here’s an example; teaching an English lesson exactly the same to every child is equality but not taking into consideration those in the class whose first language is not English means these children do not have a fair chance at achieving what the rest will. I want to ensure that throughout my career I stick by my value of equity and not only does every child have an equal opportunity to be educated but that all children have a truly equal chance to achieve. The picture below describes these concepts well…
There are also other values that I see as fundamental to me personally and in my professional career such as honesty, openness, wisdom and team work. Each of these are vital in teaching and I know my values and skill set will be exercised in this profession unlike others. Finally, the value sharing is very important to me; the sharing of knowledge.
Described above are my personal values yet it has been shown these can all be used in a professional setting. As I consider this more I am finding that within teaching there is a very thin line between personal and professional values. Obvious personal values such as religious views or stereotypical beliefs cannot be discussed within the classroom however the GTCS Standards For Registration outline the core values in teaching and much of these are personal. They include: Social justice, Integrity, Trust and Respect and Professional Commitment. This demonstrates that personal values are extremely important within teaching and I must continue to reflect on my own throughout my studies and career.
Moving on from this the final task brought everything together and asked me to look back on my weaker skills I identified in unit 1. I was then asked to make a personal commitment to developing these marking the beginning of my CPD (Continual Professional Development).
My commitment is to develop my academic skills mainly my reflective writing, spelling and punctuation skills. I plan on doing this by reading continuously especially reflective pieces and essay writing skills books. I look forward to re- evaluating this a year from now and making another commitment.
