 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND VALUES

7.01 Education, a Sub-system of the Social System

Education is a sub-system in the wider social system. Although it has a separate identity and, upto a limited degree, functions autonomously, it has link.ages with the economic, political, religious, and other sub-systems which exert powerful influence on the goals and instrumentalities of the educational subsystem on the one hand and on its autonomy on the other. The economic sector has to find funds for education, for the later can rarely pay its own way. Power interests define and redefine the goals of education and from time to time seek to assign to it new instrumental rules. In several parts of the world education has cut its umbilical cord placed in religion, yet denominational institutions still continue, and otherwise also religion plays a role in determining the ideological overtones of at least some components of education. Education can rarely free itself from social and cultural norms and has to relate itself to the ferments within the society. The state of health of one sub-system casts its shadows on the health of the other. In this respect education is especially vulnerable ; while its intrinsic worth is universally recognized, it is also subject to many diverse pressures because of the multiplicity of instrumental roles that it is called upon to play. It has to deal with something of a paradox when on the one hand it has to transmit the cultural heritage and tradition, and on the other, has to function as a prime mover of change. In point of fact, the educational subsystem is not the only agency offering education, to begin with, the domestic group, the neighbourhood, and the peer group have important educational roles and the educational process continues beyond the formal school stage through books, mass media, cultural, political, and religious intercourse, and interpersonal contacts of a wide variety. The formal education system has to take account of early socialisation and has to anticipate future educational processes.

7.02 The Changing Teacher-Taught Scenario

The teacher and the taught represent the two most significant components of the educational sub-system. Over the decades the class base of both has changed. Second and first generation learners are now flooding the institutions of learning. They bring with them a variety of problems with which the existing pedagogy cannot cope. First, in increasing number, teachers are drawn from groups which do not have a tradition of literacy and learning. The social background and cultural orientations of the learners and their instructors pose a new set of problems to the educational process. Second, education has now been brought within the orbit of the demand for social justice and is claimed as a matter of right. Coping with the demand for equality of educational opportunity is difficult enough; but when the demand for equality of results is added to it, the problem becomes infinitely more complex. Third, education cannot be inflexible in respect of its ideology and content and has to be responsive to the urges and demands of different sectors impinging on it. A series of questions arise in this context : What do the guardians expect from the education of their wards? What are the perceptions of learners from different strata regarding the objectives and methods of education ? How do different interests in society exert visible and invisible pressures on the educational system to tilt its advantages towards them ? What are the latent and manifest functions that the elite, which supports the educational system, expects it to perform? Fourth, what about the unintended consequences of education? How are these, to be managed so that they do not become dysfunctional to the larger objectives of society? These, questions are important and feeble-minded handling of them pushes the educational system into a state of disarray. Adequate answer to them have to be found so that the educational system, being sensitive and vulnerable to them, does not lose its sense of direction and purpose. Finally,

in many countries of the 'Third World,' education is viewed as an aspect of power and even of profit. The implications of the power and profit motive in the organised educational endeavour have not been examined sufficiently and in depth. If the educational system is moving like a massive but rudderless ship, it is because some of these critical issues have either not been faced or faced halfheartedly. Much of the value chaos in the contemporary educational system can be attributed to this failure. The world-view and value constellations of the teachers in India today present a series of ambiguous and blurred images and contradictory and conflicting values.

7.03 World-View and Values

In this context 'world-view' is taken to mean the summation of the shared outlook of a society regarding the past, present, and future of the human order and Its components. It takes account of both qualitative and quantitative dimensions, it attributes or assumes quality in the elements of the order and its processes and often tends to translate quantity into quality. It may also evaluate quality into aggregate quantity terms. Basic questions with which it is concerned are those of relative primacy of principles over persons, of natural (including social) over super-natural order, and of man-made objectives and conditions over non-man-made objective and subjective conditions. Thus, a consideration of world-view implies assumptions regarding what the human order was in the past and why, what it is now and why, and what it would be in the future and why. It may also envisage conscious intervention to set desirable sailing direction so that human destinies can be controlled and piloted towards a preferred and desired future. By value we shall mean a preference quality in action. Values have normative overtones, but they often lack the sanctions that go with social norms. They attribute quality to different modes of behaviour along a continuum---from the most desired to the least desired (and also the undesired). They may be explicit or implicit and there may be a significant gap between the ultimate and the proximate values. In proximate terms, the choices may be situational and pragmatic although they, may be at variance from the ultimate desired action, which may continue to be articulated and cherished. They form a part of the cognitive universe and encompass within them aesthetic and evaluative elements. They provide guides to behaviour without being rigidly prescriptive. Often there is a hierarchy of values and the permissible range allows different levels of choices. Some values may be universal to a society, others may be specific to particular groups and categories. Nonetheless, a social order cannot be conceptualised without a scheme of values. In reference to teachers it may be asserted that while they will share some general societal values they are likely also to have a set of values which are specific to their professional category and its cultural role definition.

7.04 Desired World-View of Teachers

In the grim context of today's India, it would be useful to start with an inventory of the elements of world-view and values, which are considered desirable and necessary in those who belong to the- teaching profession. We shall examine later how far the existing reality approximates to this normative model. Absence of a fit between the two will necessitate deep causal analysis and indications of possible remedial action. For a country of India's cultural heterogeneity, social complexity, economic inequalities, and ideological differentiations, unanimity in respect of all values is not possible nor perhaps even desirable. 'The area of personal belief has therefore to be omitted from this discussion. However, a consensus is needed on some premises and in respect of some core socio-political as well as academic values. Let us first list some of the desired elements of the world-view of teachers as a category.

First, principles should have primacy over persons. This should be based on some universal norms as against particular considerations of status and station or considerations of caste, class or sex.

Second, in the scheme of social action the accent should be on rationality rather than on obscurantism. Super-natural powers should at best feature in personal beliefs and their hold on arenas of public policy and action should be gradually minimized and ultimately eliminated. Creative rationality should emerge as the key force.

Third, man should be viewed as capable of gaming mastery over the physical universe. In exploiting its resources, however, man should recognize some outer limits and in the process, he should not destroy the delicate harmony and balance of nature.

Fourth, the necessity of freedom for all human beings has been theoretically established. A subjective ethos and objective conditions for the realization of genuine freedom, however, remain to be established,

Fifth, freedom without equality makes little sense. Equality of creative expression is a must not only for individuals but for their collectivities of different orders. Grant of equality should not be reduced to a

ritual act; conditions conducive to its realization must be consciously promoted.

Sixth, cultural differences persist and will continue to persist for they have deep-rooted functions. There should be no cause for alarm. In fact, they, may even be, maximized; what need to be minimized are economic disparities and cultural deprivations.

Seventh, man is a product of history, but in many significant ways he has also been its author. An increasing interventionist role should be envisioned for him, if for nothing else, for his own survival. Henceforth, lie shall have to learn to define his role as an architect of his destiny.

Values rooted in personal belief can be left out of consideration so long as they do not clash with national and social values that need to be promoted ,urgently. The fact that individually held values get, directly or indirectly, consciously or sub-consciously, projected on the educational scene and into educational offerings, does not need to be reiterated.

Democracy, secularism, and social justice have been enshrined in the Constitution as the three most important national values. One car legitimately have some doubt about the honesty of such articulation and indeed the approach towards their realisation can be faulted on many scores, but there can be little, doubt that on the awareness level, they have been accepted as core values and enjoy a consensus at least among large sections of the elite. It is difficult to estimate how far they have percolated down to common citizens. Ritualistic acceptance of these values by the teachers will not do these must inform and inspire their teaching. The concept of the autonomous individual must be expanded with reference to his rights and obligations. The class room itself should become an example of a participative community. It is possible for one to be secular in profession and non-secular in practice. Such 'duplicity must be exposed and genuine secular habits of thought and action promoted. Faith in social justice would necessitate debunking of all discriminatory practices based on ethnic or caste considerations', religion or sex. The gospel of egalitarianism is much more than mouthing some high-minded slogans. An attitude of caring for and sharing with the deprived and the underprivileged, need to be inculcated. If one accepts social justice as a value, one should learn to be appalled by the enormity of injustice meted to various section and categories of the community everyday and protest about it. The acceptance of these core values should be judged not by their formal enunciation but by the praxis they generate.

To these three, let us consider adding three more national values. in our general scheme of values there is emphasis on past- present orientation; instead, the shift should be towards a present- future orientation. This does riot imply negation of history, but it certainly involves rejection of harking back to the past more often than is really necessary. What concerns us most in existential terms is the living present and to-be-lived future. For the baffling problems of present, history may have new answers; new maladies re- quire new remedies. These must represent a creative response to the challenges that we face today. At the same time it is necessary that in solving today's problems we do not morgage the future. Options that offer temporary relief today but endanger human survival a few decades later are no solutions. it is important, thus, that we examine the problems of today in a present-future perspective. The second value that is to be added involves the rejection of the passivity principle. Servility and compliance have to be ruled out. The autonomous individual is an active individual. His consciousness should be extended to enable him to critically examine the goings on in society and to judge the rights and wrongs of it. He should riot stop at judging, he must learn to do something about the rectification of the wrongs. The third related value has a hearing on the cultiva- tion of what has been called the scientific temper. The overt and convert dimensions of this temper need to be worked out meticulously.

Despite the erosion of his influence, the teacher continues to be an opinion leader of considerable power. His faith in these core values is necessary if the younger generation is riot to start on a shaky foundation of beliefs, misbeliefs and disbeliefs.

7.05 Values Particular to the Academic Profession

Let us turn to some sub-cultural specialities-values particular to the academic profession.

7.05.01 Acquisition, transmission and addition of new knowledge

In the knowledge industry, especially in the teaching profession, one has to acquire and also add to fund of existing knowledge. The teachers additionally have to transmit knowledge to the successive generations of students who come under their mentorship. A good teacher, thus, has to equip himself with the major growth points in his speciality or sub-speciality,

demonstrate adequate communicational. skills to transmit the knowledge he has acquired, and continuously strive through his research endeavours to create new knowledge. Ideally a balance has to be struck between acquisition, transmission, and addition. This calls for a passionate devotion to knowledge in these three dimensions.

For a teacher, acquisition of knowledge alone would be a selfish and unproductive pursuit if it is not followed up by the transmission function. Teaching is not to be viewed as a mechanical process. It is not enough to tell the students what one knows about a subject. There is an element of high creativity in teaching. The plus factor requires creation of enquiring and questioning minds. A competent teacher would not promote excessive dependence of the students on the teacher; instead, he would generate a self-learning and group learning processes. Routine teaching gets an element of inspiration when the individual research of the teacher and his instructional role get organically linked. Through this process a good teacher gets to be a better teacher, if not always an inspired teacher. Creativity thus emerges as a central value in the teaching profession.

7.05.02 Social relevance

Knowledge in itself is important, but at some stage one has to ask the question : knowledge for what ? Knowledge, thus, has to be socially relevant and useful. To invest a social purpose into education, the teaching-learning process must aim at sharpening the problem-solving capabilities of the learners. Socially useful knowledge will therefore involve coming to grips with the pressing problems of the day as well as their multidimensional causal analysis and possible pathways for their solution. Application orientation will have to be accepted as a value, if the ideal of creative teaching is accepted.

7.05.03 Extension-organic links with community

The notion of a scholar leading a cloistered or ivory tower existence, devoting oneself only to reflection 'and research, is dated. Extension is now regarded as an important aspect of the educational process. The isolation of the academic, thus, has to be broken. He must develop organic linkages with the community. In a simplified form his knowledge should become a part of the cognitive universe of the common people and more than that, this knowledge should contribute to improving the quality of life around him. It is erroneous to believe, that the academic 'Knows best in which areas of knowledge he should reflect and carry out his investigations. Organic linkages with the people will bring useful feedback and provide the academic with new perspectives that will equip him better to determine the themes for reflection and research. A shift from individual- centred research and study to people-oriented academic endeavours is indicated. If knowledge and its gains have to have a wide spread, this has, to be incorporated as a central value of the teaching profession.

7.05.05 Irrelevance of some knowledge and so continuous renovation and innovation

The criterion of relevance necessarily brings us to a consideration of the irrelevance of some knowledge. The size of knowledge industry being what it is, knowledge is growing at a very fast pace. It is now said to double itself every five years. This brings us to a knotty problem; what was good and useful teaching twenty years ago may be out dated and practically useless today. The teacher has to make some critical and effective choices; the deadwood of knowledge has to be chopped off and modern, uptodate and relevant knowledge emphasized. Continuous renovation and innovation in the knowledge field, thus, emerges as an important value. A good teacher can never rest on his oars ; mentally be has continuously to be on the move.

7.05.05 Decolonisation of the Third World mind

A related point needs, consideration here. Perceptive observers of the academic scene in the Third World have noticed that the academia in these countries suffers from a captive mind syndrome. A decolonization. process of the minds of the academics has not seriously been taken in hand. Standards of scholarship are set by high prestige centres of learning abroad and much of Third World scholarship emulates it, The attitude of our scholars is one of servile adoption. In consequence, our recognition and reward system is distorted. There is evidence of quest for chasing "international standards", which may be meaningless in our own national context. Decolonisation of our academic life, therefore, should emerge as a value. This is not a plea for raising iron or bamboo curtains or for barring the free flow of knowledge internationally. What is indicated is the reed for cautious thought geared to promoting an intellectual tradition that emphasizes posing of right and relevant questions and devising methods of finding answers to them efficiently 'and economically. This task has to be incorporated in the value system of our academics.