Is Teaching a Profession?

Until the twentieth centUry, teachers received relatively little preparation and had little say in the terms of their employment. Formal teacher training consisted of one or two years at a normal school or teacher’s college, and after they were employed in a local school, teachers had to follow strict rules and regulations that monitored their behavior outside school. Unorganized and isolated from one another in small schools and districts, teachers could be summarily dismissed by a local board of education. Many were told they could not teach material that a community member might find objectionable. times have changed. today, teachers strive to be professionals with expert knowledge concerning instruction, content, and assessment in their particular fields. in addition, most belong to teacher organizations and have gained greater rights to be judged on their classroom performance rather than on their behavior outside school. in schools today, they are likely to participate in decision making about work conditions. in many cases, they are forging stronger links with school administrators, university researchers, government officials, and the communities they serve. the first part of this chapter describes ways in which teachers are striving for full professional status, and the second part discusses the teacher organizations that have grown in power and prominence.

2-1 Is TeachIng a ProfessIon?

profession An occupation that rates high in prestige and requires extensive formal education and mastery of a defined body of knowledge beyond the grasp of laypersons. The question of whether or not teaching is a true profession has been debated for decades. Some have tried to identify the ideal characteristics of professions, and by rating teachers on these items, determine whether teaching is a profession. The following are characteristics of a full profession, based on the works of noted authorities during the latter half of the twentieth century.1 1. A sense of public service; a lifetime commitment to career 2. A defined body of knowledge and skills beyond that grasped by laypeople 3. A lengthy period of specialized training 4. Control over licensing standards and/or entry requirements 5. Autonomy in making decisions about selected spheres of work 6. An acceptance of responsibility for judgments made and acts performed related to services rendered; a set of performance standards 7. A self-governing organization composed of members of the profession 8. Professional associations and/or elite groups to provide recognition for individual achievements 9. A code of ethics that signals an overriding commitment to the welfare of the client 10. High prestige and economic standing

Critics claim that teaching is not a profession in the fullest sense because it lacks some of the previously listed characteristics, but it may be viewed as a “semi-profession” or the “not-quite-profession” in the process of achieving these characteristics. Several sociologists contend that nursing and social work, like teaching, are also semi-professions.2

1Ronald G. Corwin, Sociology of Education (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965); Robert B. Howsam et al., Educating a Profession (Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 1976); Susan J. Rosenholtz, Teachers’ Workplace: The Social Organization of Schools (New York: Longman, 1989); and A. Lin Goodwin, “Response to Section II: What’s Needed Now: Professional Development Schools and the Professionalization of Teaching” in Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2011). 2Amitai Etzioni, The Semiprofessions and Their Organizations: Teachers, Nurses, and Social Workers (New York: Free Press, 1969), p. v; Linda Darling-Hammond and A. L. Goodwin, “Progress Toward Professionalism in Teaching,” in G. Cawelti, ed., Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development 1993 Yearbook (pp. 19–52) (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1993); and Richard Ingersoll and David Perda, “The Status of Teaching as a Profession,” in Jeanne H. Ballantine and Joan Z. Spade, eds., Schools and Society: A Sociological Approach to Education (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, 2008).