Ethical Issues for ESL Faculty

This book explicitly addresses ethical dilemmas and issues that post-secondary ESL faculty commonly encounter and examines them in the framework of social justice concerns. Ethics is defined broadly, to include responsibilities and obligations to students inside and outside the classroom, as well to colleagues, educational institutions, the TESL profession, and society as a whole.

Scenarios in each chapter provide realistic and compelling situations for reflection and discussion. The authors then set out the issues raised, relate them to the classroom environment, and offer opportunities to examine them in a variety of contexts and to consider possible solutions to the dilemmas. Issues include testing, plagiarism, technology, social and political issues affecting students and the classroom, gift-giving, curriculum decisions, disruptive students, institutional constraints, academic freedom, gender, class, and power.

Busy classroom instructors will find this book accessible, thought-provoking, and relevant to their daily work situations. It is not intended as a theoretical treatment of ethics and social justice in ESL, nor does it propose that ESL faculty teach morals or ethics to students. Rather, it is designed as a concise, practical introduction to ethical practice for both new and experienced ESL faculty in post-secondary teaching situations in the United States, for others interested in the ESL classroom, and as a text for TESL classes and seminars.