The Teaching Profession

Chapter 5
 Is Teaching a Profession?
Defining a profession:
Strong intellectual skills
Provides an essential service
Requires extensive specialized training
Allows autonomy in decision making
Emphasizes service to its clients
Identifies professional standards of
behavior
Assumes individuals are responsible for
their own actions and decisions
Engages in self-governance
 Arguments for teaching as a
profession
The need for strong
intellectual skills created a
steady rise in academic
requirements for entering
and exiting teacher
education
Extensive specialized
training
Professional standards
 Arguments against teaching as a
profession
Moderate specialized training
Minimal competition entering teacher
preparation and the teaching ranks
Only recent adoption of standardized
testing for entrance and exit of training
Limited autonomy of decision making
Minimal self governance
Relatively low salaries and status
Professional organizations
American Federation of Teachers
National Education Association
Each has two major purposes: to
serve as a strong teacher union,
with collective bargaining; and to
assist in continuing professional
development of all teachers
There are also many specialty
organizations: age group, subject
matter, specialty area
 How is teacher professionalism
changing?
Educational reform
efforts: beginning with A
Nation at Risk (1983)
Higher standard for
students: core
curriculum, standards
for core subjects,
standardized testing
More rigorous teacher
certification
 Teachers professional
responsibilities
Conducts self ethically
Works productively
Displays initiative by using a variety of
resources
Initiates personal growth in subject area(s),
learning theories, and/or instructional
practices; establishes goals for professional
improvement
Utilizes knowledge of families and community
resources to enhance support for children and
families, including those from diverse groups