What is teacher professionalism?
I have been thinking about this question for the last
three years and still have no satisfactory answer. My last three posts were
looking through the lens of the teacher journey and what professionalism mean
at each stage, I now turn my attention to the literature to find further
meaning.. Hargreaves and Fullan make a distinction between ‘professional’ and
‘a professional’ in their book Professional Capital (2012) , with ‘professional’
being about behaviours and what you do, and ‘a professional’ defined as how you
are perceived by others and how this affects your self-perception.
A classic definition of being a professional is one in
which practitioners have;
- specialised knowledge expertise
- a shared professional language
- shared standards of practice
- a rigorous process of training and qualification to be part of the profession
- an ethical element to the service
- self-regulation
- professional judgement built into the system
- collaborative working
- commitment to professional learning
Hargreaves and Fullan describe professional capital as
the sum of human capital, social capital and decisional capital. These
according to Hargreaves and Fullan are linked in an equation, shown below
Human capital can be defined as ‘economically valuable
knowledge and skills’ which can be developed by practitioners especially
through professional learning. In the OECD report (2015) human capital in new
teachers was said to be ‘strong’ as teaching is seen as a desirable occupation
in Scotland. Teaching in Scotland is premised on core values of social justice,
integrity, trust and respect, and professional commitment through undertaking
processes of professional enquiry. These core values underpin the suite of
Standards held by GTC Scotland, to support all practitioners to embody and
demonstrate the desired characteristics and qualities required of teachers in
Scotland. The OECD report (2015) calls the suite of Standards ‘bold’ and goes
on to state that they are “supportive of high quality individual professional
judgment”. From evidence of Professional Update these standards are becoming embedded
in the culture of professional learning for teachers across Scotland.
Social Capital is about “the quality of interaction and
social relationships”, this is important in education as social interaction is
the cornerstone on which relationships are built, and relationships are at the
heart of education. If you have good relationships then you can increase your
knowledge through the knowledge of others, which helps you to expand your
influence and develop personal and professional resilience.
The final capital defined by
Hargreaves and Fullan is decisional capital. This relies on practitioners
having autonomy to make informed professional judgements. The ability to make
informed professional judgements is built over time through expertise and
experience, using your own and the reflections of colleagues to support
decisions. The Standards for Career-Long Professional Learning is discussed in
the OECD report (2015) as the standards which supports teachers so they can
“develop and enhance their practice, expertise, knowledge, skills and
professional values”. This is achieved through professional learning and is
considered to be a decisional capital as it supports “deliberate development of
judgment and expertise over time”. One of the main cornerstones of building
decisional capital is “self–efficacy” which is defined in the OECD report
(2015) as “a teacher’s belief that he or she can have a positive impact on
pupils, even in adverse conditions and circumstances”. Self-efficacy can be
developed through teacher leadership which supports teachers regardless of role
and responsibility to take leadership roles as part of their professional
learning. Teacher leadership support teachers to develop confidence and
competence through professional learning choices and supports the improvement
agenda of schools. It recognises collaborative and collegiate working to help
teachers to develop professional capital.
So according to Hargreaves and Fullan, professionalism
is a set of different capitals. These capitals embody professional knowledge
and skills, professional relationship building and sustainment, and finally
making informed professional judgements. So is teacher professionalism about what
you know and how you engage with people and make decisions? This is a
reductionist view of a very complex set of dispositions and attitudes. So the
quest continues with the writing of Tara Fenwick the next stop.
References
Hargreaves, A. & Fullan, M. (2012) Professional Capital: Transforming
Teaching in every school: Routledge
Improving Schools in Scotland: An OECD Perspective (2015)
http://www.oecd.org/edu/school/improving-schools-in-scotland.htm
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