1

To be a teacher

Is teaching a profession? What does it mean to be a professional and what
global forces are at work to enhance or to diminish teachers professional
compass? We begin with the assertion that schools worldwide are now better
places for children, for parents and for teachers. How true is this of different
plaaces around the world? How are U.N. standards defining the rights of the
child observed or breached in differing social and cultural contexts?

Schools are better places for everyone
In 2011, it can be asserted with some confidence that schools are better places
for children, better resourced, more humane, more intelligent in respect of
diversity and individual needs, more likely to reach out to parents and
communities. Children, it is increasingly accepted, have rights too. The UN
Convention on Childrens Rights, ratified by governments around the world,
came into force in 1990. Article 19 defines a right for children not to be hurt or
mistreated. Article 37 prohibits harmful punishment and Article 12 asserts the
childs right to be heard and his or her opinions to be respected. These are, states
UNICEF, a universally agreed set of non-negotiable standards and obligations..
founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each individual, regardless of
race, colour, gender, language, religion, opinions, origins, wealth, birth status or
ability and therefore apply to every human being everywhere.

Corporal punishment has been progressively outlawed in countries across the
world - in Japan, South Africa, Kenya, New Zealand, Russia, the Philippines, Costa
Rica, in every European country except France and the Czech Republic, and in
North America, with the exception of 20 US states. (Farrells exploration of these
issues internationally can be accessed at (http://www.corpun.com/coun.htm)

While childrens rights, in countries of the Middle East, Africa and South
America are frequently observed in the breach, the flouting of these principles
often occurs in conditions which defy easy solutions. Corporal punishment, for
example, is less easy to eradicate where it is deeply institutionalised in custom
and belief systems and held in place by expectations of children and parents. A
school principal in Ghana who determined to abolish the cane was told by his
pupils, Master, if you do not punish us, we will not behave and we will not learn
(Swaffield and MacBeath, 2010).

Implicit in this statement is a view of learning as a coercive process, driven not
by self-interest, not by a natural desire to learn, but enforced by a peculiar set of
conventions which define a place called school. One year on, a case study of how
Ghanaian teachers are changing their practice reported:

For teachers, it meant a radical change of behaviour, from an autocratic and
punitive relationship with students to a more positive stance, rewarding and
encouraging good behaviour. As was consistently pointed out in the course of
interviews, teachers had been used to caning, harassing, intimidating, and
insulting students in order to maintain discipline. After the Leadership for
Learning programme, there had been a major change in mind-set with a
2
consequent impact on student behaviour. Beginning to show an appreciation
of students work and efforts had produced almost immediate returns.
Punishment had been replaced by praise and reward.
(Malakulunthu, 2011, p. 20)

Schools are becoming better places for children because there has been a
developing understanding of:

The complex relationship between sanctions and incentives, motivation
and demotivation
School and classroom environments which can both promote and inhibit
learning and effective teaching
The impact of parents, home and peer groups on childrens values,
attitudes and dispositions to learn
The damaging effects of discrimination by sex, race, class and ability
together with enhanced opportunities for access and progression
Learning disabilities and special needs with access to improved
diagnostic tools and remedial strategies

Schools today are better places for children with special needs and learning
difficulties in countries where teachers have access to research and enjoy
opportunities to take part in continuing professional development. Girls
disenfranchised and under achieving, now equal and often excel boys
achievements in many countries. Anti-racist legislation and school level policies
have succeeded in removing or attenuating the use of abusive and dismissive
language and raising awareness of cultural differences and the insidious forms
which racism can assume. There is a growing and deepening grasp of child
development, physical and emotional impairment and on-going discoveries of
brain science. A language which categorised children as feeble-minded,
imbeciles and uneducable would today be almost universally regarded with
dismay. We are moving slowly but progressively to question the Platonic myth of
children as gold, silver and base metal. We have come to understand more fully
the harmful effects of labelling, differentiation and discrimination, historically
embedded in selective and tripartite school systems.

Schools today are better places for parents. Their rights are more widely
recognised and the best of schools are making imaginative and sustained efforts
to communicate with and involve parents. There was a time when parents were
kept at the school gates, both literally and symbolically, with schools displaying
signs such as, No parents beyond this point. Parents were often discouraged
from teaching their children, intruding on the teachers province. The
recognition of parents as the first and crucial educators has led to exemplary
initiatives, teachers working together with parents in equal partnership and in
sites beyond the school. Parents in many countries now have a place on
governing bodies, school boards, councils and Parent-Teacher Associations. In
Canada, Peter Coleman (1998) wrote about the power of three, the significant
advances that occur when children, parents and teachers work together towards
a common goal.

3
Schools today are better places for teachers. This growing awareness may be
both cause and effect of rising standards of teacher qualifications and
professionalism. Teachers are, in general, not only better qualified but can call on
a wider repertoire of tools and skills. In the most privileged of countries, they
teach in schools and classrooms that are better resourced, with smaller class
sizes and para-professional support. Teachers enjoy more opportunities for
continued learning and professional development. Assessment strategies at their
disposal are more sophisticated and, as extended professionals, they exercise a
broader, more complex and professionally demanding remit than in any
generation before them.

There is a tide flowing towards the right to a good quality education for all (UN
Article 18) now widely accepted, if variously interpreted. While legislation has
played a key role in sanctioning practices and policy, in part it does no more than
reflect and endorse a current of thinking, stimulated and disseminated by
educators and researchers, teachers and teacher organisations, parental lobbies,
and by a less definable social and cultural shift in attitudes to children and young
people.