As caring professionals, setting and maintaining appropriate professional boundaries promotes the best interests of children, families, RECEs and their colleagues. Appropriate boundaries are critical to maintaining professional relationships built on care, respect, trust and integrity.
However, professional boundaries won’t always be straightforward because boundaries can change depending on the context. They require flexibility and ongoing critical reflection to adapt to changes based on factors such as geographical location, the type of program, culture and power imbalances.
As seen in the image below, the boundaries gauge reflects three general categories in which professional boundaries can fall. The model helps reflect the complexity and fluidity of boundaries in professional relationships, as well as the associated risks.
Explaining appropriate professional boundaries with scenarios
To support and strengthen your practice, here are some examples for reflection and discussion:
By setting and maintaining appropriate boundaries, RECEs are engaging in conduct or behaviour that is grounded in and guided by the Code and Standards.
Example:
A parent knows that their child’s RECE has recently gone through a divorce and asks them for legal advice about custody agreements. The RECE lets the parent know that they are not qualified to give that kind of advice. Instead, they provide the parent with information about services for that type of support.
Blurring of boundaries between professional and personal relationships may influence an RECE’s professional judgment. It is important to set an ethical divide between a professional and personal relationship by maintaining appropriate boundaries.
Example 1:
A parent invites their child’s RECE to be friends on Facebook. The RECE decides to respectfully decline the friend request and explains that the reason is because they prefer to keep their personal and professional lives separate.
Example 2:
A family invites their child’s RECE to their wedding. The RECE thanks the family for the invitation but respectfully declines the invitation by saying, “I’m honoured to be invited to share in such a wonderful celebration, but unfortunately I won’t be able to attend because it would be blurring the line of my professional role.”
As an RECE, setting clear, appropriate boundaries with children is an act of care and demonstrates professionalism, kindness, compassion and accountability.
Example 1:
An RECE responds to a child who only wants to sit on their lap by explaining that they love spending time with them but want to make sure that everyone has a chance to sit close and feel included.
Example 2:
An RECE asks a child if they would like a hug after they’ve fallen down to which the child responds with “no”. The RECE respects the child’s decision and offers them support in a different way.
Appropriate boundaries within professional relationships uphold the unique level of trust the public has in RECEs and uphold the integrity of the profession.
Example:
An RECE is in an online group chat with their colleagues. The conversation frequently turns into negative gossiping. The RECE tries to change the dialogue to be more positive and productive. However, their attempts don’t work, so the RECE informs the group that the topics within the chat don’t feel respectful to others, and they need to exit the chat.
By setting appropriate boundaries, an RECE promotes the best interest of children, families, colleagues, and RECEs.
Example:
An RECE creates a professional social media account in order to communicate with a family, as that is the family’s only method of communicating with their child’s educators.
Learning more about setting and maintaining appropriate boundaries is a topic RECEs can focus on for their Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) Portfolio and the resources below can be used for learning activities.
For questions or information on appropriate boundaries or more, please contact the Professional Practice department at practice@college-ece.ca.
Additional resources
- Standards in Practice: Standard V – Professional Boundaries, Dual Relationships and Conflicts of Interest
- Video (3 mins): Snapshot: Standard V – Professional Boundaries, Dual Relationships and Conflicts of Interest
- Practice Note: Professional Judgment
- Practice Note: Ethical Decision-Making