Teaching as an
Ethical Practice
About the Program
Teaching as an Ethical Practice: A Guide for Teaching Assistants (“TA Ethics”) is an online, self-paced course that introduces new Teaching Assistants to professional ethics specific to the TA role, with special attention to issues of educational equity and accessibility.
The course offers an invaluable introduction to campus resources that TAs commonly interface with, such as the Disability Resource Center (DRC), Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), the Title IX Office, Center for Advocacy, Resources and Empowerment (CARE), the UAW union, and the Resource Centers. More broadly, the course aims to support graduate students to understand the distinct role of TAs on our campus, how to set up more accessible and equitable learning environments, how to communicate effectively in a teaching team, how to respond to students in distress, how to promote academic integrity, and more.
While TA Ethics provides an overview of the essential foundations of the TA role, the department-level pedagogy courses, workshops, and colloquia, often led by TLC’s Graduate Pedagogy Fellows, give graduate student educators more in-depth professional development for teaching in their disciplines.
How to Participate
Per the Graduate Division, this course is required for all new Teaching Assistants. Per UCSC Employee & Labor Relations and the Academic Student Employee union contract, the course must be completed in one of two ways: 1) as part of a department-level, for-credit pedagogy course or 2) during a graduate student’s first TAship as part of their TA duties and workload for the quarter.
The course remains available to enrollees as a continuing resource during the remainder of their graduate careers at UCSC. Faculty, staff, and other students are welcome to access and explore this viewable Canvas course as well, without the need to formally enroll.
Each quarter, graduate program coordinators and advisors provide the Graduate Division with information about new TAs, who are then formally enrolled the TA Ethics course in Canvas. It is estimated that the course can take up to eight hours to complete, and it is recommended that new TAs complete the course either early on in the required quarter or by spreading out the modules evenly throughout the quarter. We recommend that instructors working with new TAs document in the TA Description of Duties that the TA Ethics course is part of the TA workload for the quarter.