Móðurmál – the Association on Bilingualism strongly recommends to its member groups to follow and teach according the International Guidelines for Professional Practices in Community-based Heritage Langauge Schools.
All member groups of Móðurmál agree to work according to the law of Móðurmál and the ethics code (here below), jointly created by member groups.
Heritage language (HL) teachers work according to moral values listed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.
- Practices that violate ethics and the dignity of the children and their homes are unacceptable.
- HL teachers work toward educating the students and aim at their overall maturity. They reach this goal with teaching, upbringing, and training.
- HL teachers respect the rights of the students whose interests are the guiding light of teachers´ work. HL teachers support students, and promote their identities and self-respect, they show every individual respect, interest, and care.
- HL teachers are obliged to have the equality of all students as a guiding light in their work. They work against prejudice and may not make any difference between students based on gender, nationality, language, or religion.
- HL teachers aim at waking students’ interest in Icelandic and their heritage cultures, as well as world cultures and multicultural values.
- HL teachers develop their ethical professionalism and qualifications, and they increase their knowledge about heritage language teaching, plurilingualism, and the teaching profession.
- HL teachers maintain confidentiality and do not disclose to third parties any information and data acquired while working in Móðurmál and after terminating the cooperation. The exception is if disclosure of the information is required by the law, if written consent of the involved parties is obtained, or if the information was found independently from other sources).
- HL teachers collaborate closely with students´ families and aim at information flow between HL schools and homes.
- HL teachers teach with respect to the Icelandic National Curriculum, and in particular the National Curriculum for Foreign Languages, and the National Curricula of countries of origin, and they work with HL curricula for plurilingual students.
- HL teachers collaborate and share experience and knowledge with HL teachers from other Móðurmál groups, as well as with teachers of children in Icelandic schools. HL teachers take part in developing heritage language teaching.
- HL teachers work towards the good name of their Móðurmál group, as well as Móðurmál – the Association on Bilingualism.
- HL teachers work to the best of their knowledge.
- This ethical code is based on the Ethical Code of the Teachers’ Union of Iceland