Suggestions for Presenting Sessions on 

Ethical Practice in International Education at 

NAFSA Conferences

The suggestions below are meant to help individuals design and deliver conference sessions on ethics and international education. The Committee on Ethical Practice (CEP) believes that such sessions should contain certain items of information. There is, however, much room for variation and individual creativity. The goal of these suggestions and of sessions on ethics at NAFSA conferences are two-fold: 

1. educate NAFSA members about the NAFSA Ethics Program and its goals, and   
2. to broaden the discussion about ethical practice in international education. 

Questions concerning developing an ethics-related session may be directed to a CEP member. 

What information to include in an ethics-related session:

1. A brief history of the NAFSA Ethics Program 

• NAFSA’s Board of Directors approved a Code of Ethics for NAFSA members in 1989, following a two-year process of developing the code and building consensus about its provisions. Revisions to the Code of Ethics were approved by the Board of Directors in October, 1992, and September, 2000.

• In 1991, the Board established an Ethics Program with the following elements:

1. a standing CEP (approved by a vote of the membership in January 1992);   
2. the Code of Ethics and Principles for International Educational Exchange;   
3. a strong emphasis on ethics awareness and educational programming; and   
4. procedures for handling ethics-related complaints (Standing Rule XI, adopted in October, 1992 and revised procedures anticipated to be approved by the Board of Directors, May 2001). 

1. Information on the CEP (What is it? Who are the members? What is its basic charge? Provide a list of the CEP members and contact information.)  

   The CEP is charged with encouraging the highest standards of ethical behavior within the profession of international educational exchange. The committee bases its activity on the NAFSA Code of Ethics and the NAFSA Principles for International Educational Exchange. Each section (i.e., ADSEC, ATESL, CAFSS, COMSEC, and SECUSSA) has a representative, but the committee is pan-NAFSA, cutting across all sections. Committee members are elected on the basis of their experience in one or more of the professional aspects of international education and serve terms of three years.

   The committee views its role as largely educational. To fulfill its charge, the committee develops and implements ongoing ethics education programs for new and continuing members of the association, as well as interested nonmembers who are engaged in international educational exchange. Committee members encourage and participate in regional and national conference sessions, develop case studies, and other training materials, and respond to informal inquiries and requests for assistance. Upon request, the committee also renders advisory opinions about the code and its provisions. Since the code is a working document, the committee reviews it annually, and recommends changes as needed to the Board of Directors. Finally, the committee investigates allegations that members have violated the code; and, when necessary, applies sanctions in accordance with published procedures (NAFSA Standing Rule XI).

2. A copy of the NAFSA Code of Ethics and the Principles for International Educational Exchange. (The code and principles can be found on the NAFSA: Assocation of International Educator’s website [http://www.nafsa.org] and in the 2000 - 2001 Membership Directory.  
3. Case studies or ethical issues for discussion. There are 52 approved case studies on the NAFSA ethics website. These have a determination on each case and indicate the provisions of the code that are most applicable.
   

Suggestions for an ethics session:

There is not one "right" way to do an ethics related presentation. Be creative and enjoy the process of planning and delivering such a session. The overarching goals are:

1. to get participants to think about and discuss ethics and their daily work,  
2. to have participants become familiar with the code and principles for International Educational Exchange, and   
3. to have participants see the value of applying the code and principles to their work. 

An important aspect of any presentation, however, is to tie the discussion to the Code of Ethics and the Principles for International Educational Exchange. Below are some ideas to start you thinking.

• Have case studies, ones from the NAFSA website or ones you write, that participants discuss in groups and then report back to the whole group on.  
• Have an open forum or discussion, inviting questions or situations from the audience. You may need to have a few backup case studies to use to get the discussion going.  
• Have a list of "hot ethical" issues that presenters briefly summarize and then open up for discussion.  
• Have participants in groups think of ethical dilemmas that they or colleagues have recently encountered. Have them select a few to present to the whole group. Perhaps have participants role play these situations if you or they are feeling theatrical.  
• Have each person identify an ethical issue, ask for volunteers to explain the issue, and then build a discussion around them. (This is basically brainstorming and then discussion.)  
• Show video clips that contain an ethical issue (e.g., Good Morning, Vietnam has a few scenes that work well. Robin Williams bribes an officer so that he can teach the ESL class, so he can get the name and address of a Vietnamese woman Robin wants to meet.) Use the clip as a springboard for discussion.  
• Devise an ethics-related game show.