**3.1 Professional ethics in teaching**

The study revealed that ethical professional practices of teachers have several significances. As the study indicated, it enables teachers to become model for their students, it enhances teachers to respect and like their profession, and it makes them become disciplined in their day-to-day activities. During the interview, one of the informants from the department heads described the importance of ethical professional practice for teachers as follows:

*The advantages of ethical professional practice for a teacher extend beyond the classroom teaching learning process. In the classroom, during the teaching learning process, a teacher applies ethical professional practices in that it enables him/her to recognize students' learning differences, to become aware of students' diversity in the classroom, to become aware of what to teach and how to teach and to come prepared for the classroom instruction, and at outside of the classroom, the teacher is initiated to provide advice and counseling for his/her students.(D2).*

The finding supports the study of Campbell [4] that states the moral and ethical principles that teachers undertake in the way they interact with their students and other people, and in the handling of their professional responsibilities form the basis of their moral institution.

The study also found that ethical professional practice has some other importance for teachers. These include it makes teachers have good communication with their students, it forces teachers to manage the classroom teaching-learning


**Table 2.**

*Major themes and sub-themes of the study.*

*Teachers' Ethical Professional Practices in Higher Education Institutions: An… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109651*

process in a disciplined manner, and it enables them to deliver good knowledge and skills to their students. It also makes them become aware of diversity in the classroom and respect differences and enforces them to make close communication with students, understand students' problems, and arouse them to provide advice and counseling for their students. They also become committed and honest to their responsibility and students' learning. One of the students in the focus group discussion said: *"Ethical professional practice enforces teachers to get punctual for classes and to teach us in responsible way, and not to intimidate us."* This finding supports the study by Board of Teacher Registration in Queensland [27] that states one of teaching ethical standards is responsibility to students to make the foremost responsibility to the education and welfare of all students in care, and respect the uniqueness and dignity of each student.

This study also revealed that there are teachers who do not care and pay little attention to their ethical professional practices. They lacked awareness about ethical professional practice, and they were less honest, little dedicated to their profession, and were careless about the students' learning. They became absent from classroom instruction without informing students. Moreover, they did not do proper assessment of their students' work and did not consider diversities among students. One of the informants from the department heads in the interview stated the following:

*Teacher's ethical professional practices are known only in theory in our college. There are teachers who never consider that they are teachers. They do not provide any feedback to their students, they give exaggerated grade to students without teaching them properly, and they are not transparent to their students and have less or no communication with students.(D1).*

This finding coincides with the study of Staratt [28], which indicated that there has been a significant increase in the deterioration of ethical behaviors in recent years both at home and in public institutions, including educational institutions.

The study also indicated that there were teachers who did not consider the existence of differences in ethnicity, learning style, economic and social background, religious, and cultural differences of students in the classroom. Concerning diversity among students in the classroom, one of the informants in focus group discussion revealed the following: *"Students in a classroom have different names based on their culture. There are teachers who ask our names, and who ask the meaning of that name and laugh at us in front of our classmates, and as a result, we become irritated although we do not do anything. This is not considering students' differences in culture." (S5).*

#### **3.2 Duties and responsibilities of teachers**

The Senate Legislation of Haramaya University [16] stipulates under Articles 38.3.10, 38.3.15, 38.3.29, 38.3.33, 38.3.20, and 38.3.26 duties and responsibilities of teachers. Although the Senate legislation suggests training on duties and responsibilities of teachers, the study showed that there was no training and awareness given for teachers in relation to ethical professional practices at the college level. One of the department heads puts his opinion about the training of teachers on ethical professional practices as: "*I think teachers got ethical professional awareness when they attended induction training organized by Higher Diploma Program at the university training center and no other training was provided for teachers." (D1)* In addition to this, the study revealed that no classroom supervision was carried out by the department heads. However, the study indicated, the department heads used an indirect method of getting information about

teachers' ethical professional practices from students' representatives. This contrasts with Article 85.3.1. of the Senate legislation of Haramaya University, which states that one of the duties of the department head is to properly direct the teaching-learning process of the department.

The study discloses that there were teachers who accomplished their duties and responsibilities properly. They were punctual, knew how to assess and provide timely feedback to students, accomplished the teaching-learning processes appropriately, and help students to solve their problems. Contrary to this, the study also disclosed there were teachers who were not punctual for class, who even did not know that they have class unless they were told by their students. During the interview with teachers, one of the informants among teachers described his opinion as follows: *"There are teachers who do not accomplish their duties properly. They go to class after 30 minutes of the starting teaching-learning process. Then, if students go back to their dormitory after 30', they come back to office."(T3)* However, the finding of Ontario College of Teachers Professional Standards Ontario College of Teachers [13] states teachers' commitment to students' well-being and learning through positive influence, professional judgment, and empathy in practice.

In the focus group discussion, one student stated her view as follows:

*Some teachers know their duties. But there are teachers who do not come to class unless called by students from their office. Some other teachers come very late and when students go back to dormitory, he/she comes, and during the next period, he/she threatens students for his/her own faults. She further stated that there are teachers who come to class without preparation and such teachers ask students what they taught before. (S1).*

#### **3.3 Unethical practices of teachers in teaching profession**

According to Noddings [21], learning can be a lot more effective in a caring environment. Sometimes, affective needs require more attention than academic needs. Students' well-being includes every aspect. Contrary to this, there are unethical conducts in teaching such as having inappropriate relations with students, failing to perform duties, invading students' privacy, engaging students in unethical behavior, improper grading, partiality, and lack of fairness. Based on this concept, the findings of this subtitle were presented as follows.

The study revealed that there were teachers who did their work ethically and professionally. On the opposite, there were also teachers who were unethical in their practices. According to the findings, the unethical practices of teachers included inappropriate assessment practices of students' work, improper grading, lack of timely feedback on students' assessment, and threatening students by their grades. One of the department heads during the interview expressed:

*There are teachers who do not teach the course to which he/she is assigned, but who give exaggerated grade for students. These teachers do not tell students' achievements openly and in transparent way and as a result, complaints raised against them by the students. They call students into their office show them their grades secretly. When a student raises complaint against him/her in the office, he/she adds mark and change the grade that the student should not have been given. (D4).*

This study finding concurs with the findings of Çetin and Demirkasimoglu [9] that indicated the unethical behaviors of teachers, which state harassment, physical and psychological violence made against students.

*Teachers' Ethical Professional Practices in Higher Education Institutions: An… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109651*


#### **Table 3.**

*Courses not delivered and time wastage.*

Moreover, the study indicated there were also unethical practices of teachers, including inappropriate relations with students, harassment, unfairness in assessment practices, practice of discrimination among students, and intimidation. This finding asserted the study finding by Dilekmen [8], which revealed that teachers exhibit undesirable behaviors in the classroom environment.

One of the students in the informant group expressed his opinion during the focus group discussion as follows:

*Some teachers practice their duties in an unfair way. They tell exam answers before the administration of that exam. Some provide the same exam items that students took last year. Some others simply give exaggerated grade for fearing students' complaints because such teachers do not deliver the course in an appropriate way. (S6).*

This practice contradicts the Senate Legislation of Haramaya University [16], Article 38.3.2, which states that one of the duties and responsibilities of a teacher is to refrain himself/herself from any act of discrimination against any individual or group on the basis of ethnicity, sex, creed, race, economic status, age, physical conditions, disability.

In addition to this, document analysis was carried out at the Office of Quality Assurance Directorate to scrutinize time wasted in relation to the classroom teachinglearning process, and the result is indicated in **Table 3**.

As can be seen from **Table 3** above, in a period of only two months, there were 73 hours of time wastage that should have been used in the teaching-learning process in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences due to different reasons, which was one of the sources of complaints of students against their teachers.

#### **3.4 Enhancing ethical practices in teaching**

The study revealed that there are different methods to enhance ethical professional practices. These include providing training for teachers on ethical professional practices and creating awareness of ethical professional practices, creating environment for teachers to do peer observation, and providing professional experience to each other. Moreover, there should be a commitment from teachers to improve their professional practices both ethically and professionally.

### **4. Conclusion and recommendations**

#### **4.1 Conclusion**

Ethical professional practice has tremendous significance for organizations like educational institutions that deal with students. Through ethical professional practice, teachers become models for their students in their day-to-day activities. Teachers recognize students' learning differences and their diversity in the classroom. Teachers respect their profession and increase their commitment to their work. Moreover, ethical professional practice also has an influence on local community. Therefore, from this, it is possible to conclude that ethical professional practices extend to the extent that it encourages teachers and maximizes teaching profession to get respect and prestige.

Teachers have many duties and responsibilities such as responsibility to their students, responsibility to their profession, and responsibility to their local community. However, there are some teachers who do not accomplish their duties and responsibilities to the level expected. This is due to lack of training and awareness of teachers' ethical professional practices. On the other hand, there are teachers who accomplish their professional duties and responsibilities to the level expected of them. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that there are teachers who practice their duties and responsibilities recklessly on one hand, and on the other hand, there are teachers who respect and accomplish their professional duties and responsibilities in careful manner.

This study also disclosed that there are unethical practices of some teachers in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences that become the cause for complaints lodged by the students. The major complaints lodged by the students include lack of getting proper classroom instruction due to absence of teacher from class, inappropriate assessment of students' work, lack of transparency of the teacher for their students and improper grading of students' work, lack of providing timely feedback of students' assessment, and threatening students by grade point when students ask their rights. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that there are inappropriate practices of some teachers that become the source of complaints by the students.

Last but not least, from the results of the finding, it is possible to conclude that providing training for teachers on ethical professional practices is essential to minimize and gradually avoid students' complaints.

#### **4.2 Recommendations**

Ethical professional practice is very important to enhance the status of teachinglearning process and for upholding the status and prestige of teaching profession in College of Education and Behavioral Sciences. Therefore, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences shall provide trainings for teachers on ethical professional practices and their related standards.

Supervision and follow-up are important to improve the limitations that a teacher has. It is professional support. Therefore, the heads of each department shall provide professional support through supervision for teachers by observing classroom teaching-learning process provided by teachers and other professional activities that teachers accomplish in relation to their profession.

Peer and students' evaluation of their teachers is also a means by which teachers can improve their professional practices. Therefore, teachers in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences shall practice proper peer evaluation practices and the heads of each department should enforce students to evaluate their teachers correctly about their professional practices so that they can reveal their limitations and work on it to improve their weaknesses.
