• Position: Assistant Professor
• Campus Address: EHS 336
• Phone: (989) 774-7325
• Email: umpst1r@cmich.edu

Professional Responsibility for Educators and the Michigan Code of Ethics by Gina Umpstead and David J. Blacker

Educator indiscretions typically make the headlines of the local news.  Educators are expected to uphold high standards for ethical conduct since they are entrusted with the care and teaching of our nation’s children.  Unfortunately, educators do not always receive training in ethics or standards of professional conduct before they assume their roles in public school classrooms.  In this book, professors Gina Umpstead and David Blacker provide the reader with a background into the ethical foundations for the professional codes of ethics for the teaching profession and explore the reasons why Michigan educators have been disciplined either in their jobs or by losing their teaching certification from the State of Michigan.  The book includes a series of actual case scenarios involving Michigan educators and the consequences that ensued from their questionable actions.  It links the scenarios with Michigan’s Code of Ethics for Professional Educators to highlight how educator behavior can violate this code’s principles that require educators to provide service to the common good, exhibit mutual respect, promote equity, encourage diversity, and practice truth and honesty.  The book’s goal is to better inform educators of what it means to ethically serve in our nation’s public schools and to provide them with concrete examples of the kinds of behavior to avoid in order to keep both their teaching certification and their jobs.