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Academic Ethics: Teaching Profession and Teacher Professionalism in Higher Education Settings

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Abstract

In the higher education settings, the following questions are discussed and debated in modern times. Is ‘teaching’ a profession? Are university faculty members professionals? The paper attempts to answer these questions by adopting qualitative methodology that subsumes descriptive, evaluative, and interpretative approaches. While answering these questions, it discusses significance and usefulness of academic ethics in the university set up. It examines role of academic ethics to offer quality education to students. Further, it highlights university faculty members’ roles and responsibilities toward students, colleagues, institution authorities, research works, and society at large. The paper submits that teaching in university settings is regarded as a profession, and university faculty members are regarded as professionals provided they perform their duties conforming to the teacher’s code of ethics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India

    Satya Sundar Sethy

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  1. Satya Sundar Sethy
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Correspondence to Satya Sundar Sethy.

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Sethy, S.S. Academic Ethics: Teaching Profession and Teacher Professionalism in Higher Education Settings. J Acad Ethics 16, 287–299 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-018-9313-6

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