Truth in Advertising and Recruitment
All public reports, materials and advertising produced by ADLER are presented in a full, accurate and truthful manner. Recruitment of students is guided by fair business practices. Key information about ADLER Programs and policies is published in the Academic Calendar, on the School website, and otherwise made readily available to students and the public.
Graduate Professional Education
ADLER was formed to promote education and training for practitioners in the mental health and coaching professions. Programs are offered at the graduate level or as preparation for graduate work. ADLER programs remain current and informed by current theory, research, and clinical experience in relevant professional disciplines. Graduate-level students are expected to show originality in the application of knowledge and an understanding of how the boundaries of knowledge are advanced through research. They will be asked to deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively and to show originality in tackling and solving problems. The emphasis in professional education is on learning the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for excellence in practice. This requires transforming: Teaching into learning; Careers into callings; Theory into practice, and vice-versa
Academic Principles
In designing the structure and curricula for ADLER programs, academic staff and faculty examined the Mission, Vision, Core Values, and professional education principles. From these, they derived a set of Academic Principles to serve as guidelines for all ADLER teaching and training:
Principle 1. Applied Focus
- ADLER prepares human service professionals to apply knowledge of psychological and other human science theory, practice and research in service delivery, organizational, and educational settings.
Principle 2. Professional Emphasis
- ADLER requires students to become knowledgeable of the history and role expectations of the particular profession to which they aspire; ADLER takes a leadership role in upholding and promoting excellence within those professions.
Principle 3. Upholding Standards
- ADLER upholds the highest standards of postsecondary education and of training within each profession it prepares students to enter; ADLER maintains liaison with accrediting and professional bodies in order to update those standards as the needs of the profession change.
Principle 4. Ethical Duty
- ADLER impresses on human service professionals in training the importance of their ethical and fiduciary duty to clients and the specifics of the ethical code for their chosen profession.
Principle 5. Enhancing Relationships
- ADLER believes that the basic and material component of human services is relationships, including professionals’ relationship with themselves; therefore, the curriculum provides opportunities for self-awareness, insight and self-development in the interest of building the capacity for collaborative relationships with clients and within the social environment.
Principle 6. Adult Learning
- ADLER subscribes to an adult education model, expecting students to take responsibility for their own learning, at the same time as providing learning opportunities for working professionals and those who must travel in order to study. ADLER strives to provide and continually improve resources that support students in becoming responsible learners.
Principle 7. Adlerian Grounding
- ADLER relies on the philosophy and psychological theories of Alfred Adler to provide its values and guiding principles. Because these principles promote the betterment of humanity as a criterion for judging the value of behaviour and knowledge, ADLER welcomes and teaches a range of theories and techniques, whatever their source.
Principle 8. Resource-Based Approach
- Although pathology is a recognized means of directing treatment, wherever possible, ADLER students are encouraged to utilize a resource-based approach to clinical interventions and professional development. A resource-based approach acknowledges what individuals know and are capable of accomplishing as a scaffold for healing and for further development.
Principle 9. Social Justice
- Through education and public advocacy, ADLER is committed to redressing societal wrongs derived from injustice, exploitation, and discrimination.
Principle 10. Diverse Context
- ADLER recognizes the importance of a diverse context in which racial/cultural/religious/social/gender differences are celebrated; ADLER promotes social equality, acceptance, understanding, and respect among its students, graduates, faculty, staff, clientele, and society.
Principle 11. Embedded Systems
- ADLER does not teach or practice as though minds are separate from brains, brains are separate from bodies, or bodies are separate from the social and natural world in which they are embedded.
Principle 12. Research Support
- ADLER supports student and faculty research as a means of furthering individual mastery, grounding practice in empirical results, adding to the fund of evidence-based techniques, and transforming theory into practice and vice-versa.
Principle 13. Service Delivery
- ADLER provides mental health, supportive, and transformative services to individuals, families, groups, organizations, and underserved populations.
Principle 14. Technological Enhancement
- ADLER respects that, when delivery is properly matched with content, technology can help provide higher quality professional education as well as promoting economy and convenience in learning. However, ADLER recognizes that in-person participation in courses and field experience, and face-to-face contact with faculty and other students, is essential to the development of human service skills.
Principle 15. Reflective Practitioner Model
- ADLER supports education and training in academic, experiential and practice settings to best prepare students to meet the demands of their clients. The scholar-practitioner model stresses the development of knowledge through practice, an approach that supports and complements the scientist-practitioner model. ADLER supports practice-based evidence in addition to evidence-based practice.
Principle 16. Evidence-Based Evaluation
- ADLER is committed to the utilization of evidence-based practice and evaluation on a student, faculty and program basis to guide its curriculum, professional development, educational practices, and service provision.
Adler Statement of Ethical Expectations
ADLER Graduate Professional School Inc. (the “Organization,” the “School,” or “ADLER”) upholds the highest standards of business practices to ensure fair and honest dealings with students, faculty, staff, and the public. The School maintains careful and accurate accounting systems and upholds its contractual and fiduciary obligations among all its stakeholders. It observes and strives to comply with all requirements of the Ontario Human Rights Code and other relevant and applicable legislation, statutes, and regulations. The School has instituted and maintains procedures that aim to ensure due process accorded to students, staff, and faculty in the event of a dispute and the exercise of their rights.
Ethical Conduct at ADLER is governed by both the principles of social justice and ethics and the understanding of human rights and justice as outlined by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Ontario Human Rights Code. The Statement of Ethical Expectations applies to all members of the ADLER Community, from academic and instructional staff through administrative staff, and includes all students in any of the faculties and departments.
The School expects its officers, employees, staff, and consultants to conduct all their activities in accordance with the letter, spirit, and intent of all relevant laws and to refrain from any illegal, dishonest, or unethical conduct. In effecting this expectation, there is a positive obligation on all members to use their good judgment based on a mindful understanding of high ethical principles as providing guidance for acceptable conduct in their dealings. Where it is difficult to determine a proper course of action, all members have a positive obligation to seek guidance from the leader of their respective functional role: administrative staff from their immediate supervisor, faculty members from their program dean or director, students from their faculty advisor/mentor, and senior organizational leaders from their peers, the President, Board of Directors, and Advisory Council.
ADLER is obligated to follow the same principles in the resolution of disputes and review of ethical conduct breaches.