1. The Teaching Profession
Chapter 5

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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