Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. I believe that integrity is an attribute of a profession because it is important for teachers to uphold moral values as their behavior influences the children they teach. Having good/strong moral values is important in my eyes as you have the ability to teach what is right or wrong. As a teacher our behavior directly influences children so therefore being honest could also be regarded as key. We need to be honest in the way we teach, learn and reflect. A sense of honesty is needed for self-reflection and self-criticism in order to improve. Integrity is also in the GTCS standards for registration.
Another attribute a professional requires is a sense of fairness. Fairness is defined as the state, condition, or quality of being fair, or free from bias or injustice; evenhandedness. This is important to being professional as showing signs of preference towards one person over the other, or perhaps letting one child behave in a certain way that others would not get away with can create tension and animosity. Being fair is also a crucial way to build trust, respect and good relationships. Fairness could also mean equality. I think that being professional means you must treat everyone equally. Discrimination for any reason would simply be unacceptable in any work place, and especially in a classroom.
Justice helps create a safe-environment for us to work and live in and therefore could be seen as a vital attribute of being a professional. Justice is the punishment of the wrong and the upholding of the good. Through justice we can improve our morals. I believe that justice creates a better sense of togetherness and can improve people’s self-discipline. Justice in the workplace is important as it shows unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated and anyone who has felt a victim (through actions such as bullying) can gain more self-esteem knowing that justice has worked in their favour. I believe justice is important in the classroom as it can stop unruly behaviour and teach children that certain behaviour won’t be tolerated.
In my eyes respect is treating others how you would like to be treated. The dictionary defines respect as a due regard for the feelings, wishes, or rights of others. Respect in a profession can help create strong working relationships. Having mutual respect shows that you acknowledge someone’s talents, skills or attributes. This can be helpful as it can broaden opportunities. By showing you respect someone’s skills they will be more willing to show or demonstrate how to do certain things you may be struggling with. Lack of respect creates workplace tension and an atmosphere that can be hard to work or learn in. Respect towards pupils in the classroom is important not only because pupils will then begin to respect you back, but it shows them that they must respect each other and understand the consequences of showing no respect.
Patience is an important aspect in any profession. Having patience means you are less likely to make unrational decisions. Patience is important in building relationships as it provides us time to process other people’s views, tolerate any behaviours we do not agree with and allow us to stay calm in situations. Patient is important for overcoming anger and frustration. Professionals deal with many frustrating situations on a day-to-day basis and through patience we no only tolerate them more, but we can make them more enjoyable. Children can sometimes be unpredictable and behave in ways in which we do not agree with. Patience is key in all classrooms, not all children will understand your explanation the first, second or maybe even third time. Through patience and by keeping calm we can enhance children’s learning experience, being able to repeat ourselves and tolerate persistent mischief is part of the job and without patience frustration would set in much quicker and the learning environment would subsequently suffer.
