Balancing Professionalism and Personal Life- Teachers’ Responsibilities, Rights, and Role Model Status

Balancing Professionalism and Personal Life- Teachers’ Responsibilities, Rights, and Role Model Status

Teachers are the backbone of the education system because they play the central role of equipping students with knowledge and competencies and shaping students into reliable members of society. Teachers also influence the behavior of learners by acting as role models. Therefore, teachers are expected to maintain professionalism and serve as good role models to the learners to create a conducive learning environment. Mehrparvar et al. defines professionalism as a set of attitudes, behaviors, and characteristics that include observing ethical principles, maintaining and establishing effective relationships with the audience and colleagues, developing awareness in the professional role, and being trustworthy (1). Educators and other professionals in the education sector have various responsibilities in maintaining a professional image and role model status. One of the responsibilities is observing ethical standards in their conduct. The second responsibility is creating a safe environment for the learners. Another responsibility is being available to assist learners with their academic work and offer advice. These responsibilities focus on ensuring that teachers act in the learners’ best interest and set a good example for the learners—they may also be used to set the code of conduct in learning institutions.

The responsibilities of educators and other professionals in maintaining professional image and role model status intersect with their rights to privacy regarding moonlighting and personal expression outside work. For instance, teachers must ensure that the second job they take does not limit their availability when the students need academic assistance and advice. The responsibility to create a safe environment for the learners also intersects with the educators’ and other professionals’ right to privacy regarding moonlighting and expression outside work because the professionals and educators must ensure that their actions outside the work environment do not negatively impact the learners. For instance, in the current moonlighting case regarding a teacher’s use of an OnlyFans site to earn extra income (Hollingsworth 4), the teacher endangers the mental health of the students who may see the videos and begin developing inappropriate thoughts about the teacher, thus compromising the safety of the learning environment. The videos may also create conflict between the teacher and learners because the learners may be disrespectful to the teacher when they do not want to do what the teacher instructs them to do. The responsibility to observe ethical standards also overlaps with the right to privacy regarding moonlighting and personal expression outside work because educators and professionals are expected to maintain ethical standards even in their conduct outside the learning environment to serve as role models.

Works Cited

Hollingsworth, Heather. “Teachers Have Been Outed for Moonlighting in Adult Content. Do They Have Legal Recourse?” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 12 Dec. 2023, www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/teachers-have-been-outed-for-moonlighting-in-adult-content-do-they-have-legal-recourse/.

Mehrparvar, AmirHoushang, et al. “Effective components of teachers’ professionalism in viewpoints of various stakeholders.” Journal of Education and Health Promotion, vol. 12, no. 1, 2023, p. 24, https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_1565_21.

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Please read the article, “Teachers have been outed for moonlighting in adult content.” and write a brief essay (approx. 400-450 words) responding to the following prompt:

Balancing Professionalism and Personal Life- Teachers’ Responsibilities, Rights, and Role Model Status

What responsibilities do educators and other professionals have in maintaining a professional image and role model status, and how do these responsibilities intersect with their privacy rights (regarding moonlighting) and personal expression outside of work?