Warrior, Becky (2002) ‘Reflections of an Education Professional’, Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, 1(2), pp. 53-59, [online] Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/hlst/documents/johlste/0030_warrior_vol1no2.pdf (Accessed 23 November 2008).
How to define professionalism..
Perkins (1985) presents the idea of professionalism asSockett (1985) defines it as requiring
- an occupation with a crucial social function
- requiring a high degree of skill
- drawing on a systematic body of knowledge
Millerson (1964) defines it as having
- element of intellectual training or mental expertise
Lindop (1982) being professional is about
- skills based on theoretical knowledge
- intellectual training and education
- some sort of independent testing of competence
- access to a restrictive organization or association
- allegiance to a code of conduct
- an altruistic drive to serve others
- doing something special for society
- professing to have certain socially useful skills
- enjoying privilege and responsibility
- exercising personal judgement
- protecting the public by guaranteeing certain minimum standards of competence
- having recognized one's conduct and merit by payment and status
a variety of different views .. each overlapping in some way or another
but all demonstrating a key duality for any profession
- an intrinsic responsibility of a member to other members
- an extrinsic responsibility of a member to the public / client
.... but then is teaching a profession?
Being an educatoryet...
- require recognized qualifications
- combines knowledge with practice
- requires organization ... a framework to abide by (i.e. format for curriculum design, delivery, and assessment)
- primary / secondary teacher must have compentencies / qualifications to teach
- whereas lecturers must have specialist level of knowledge .. but not necessarily a detailed understanding of theories / practices of teaching to teach
So what bounds the profession of educators?
Key issue - QUALITYyet...
- means meeting or exceeding certain standards .. realized via supervision, inspection & control
- quality in teaching is often measured in terms of "benchmarks", "self assessment docs", "performance indicators"
- these become the standards to which teachers are measured
- professional discretion is removed because of the restrictive framework of rules and managerial control
- inspections can be seen as intrusive and marginalizing professional autonomy
another option to realizing QUALITY
- being professional means commitment and time to professional development .. on an ongoing basis
- onus is on the individual to update themselves to attend regular training courses or conferences .. to prevent stagnation of professional practice
Hoyle (1985) professional development is a process where professionals seek to improve their competencies
- reskilling
- relearning
- incorporating new modes of teaching
- self appraisal
Yet this is not without difficulty. On these terms, a professional must constantly and consistently find the time and motivation to take responsibility for one's own professional development.
In effect a professional is one who consistently engages in reflective practice, and consistently seeks engagement with other practitioners to test and share one's findings (intrinsic responsibility), and equally so, consistently informs practice through the application of these ideas to address the needs of those they seek to serve (extrinsic responsibility).
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profession
an occupation with a specialized and comprehensive body of knowledge that is constantly being tested through practice and review by practitioners in serving the best interests of a social need or community
professional
a person who consistently engages in reflective practice, and consistently seeks engagement with other practitioners to test and share one's knowledge (intrinsic responsibility), and equally so, consistently informs practice through the application of this knowledge to address the needs of those they seek to serve (extrinsic responsibility).
elearning professional
An elearning professional is one who consistently engages in reflective practice, and consistently seeks engagement with other elearning practitioners to test and refine one's understanding of good practice, constantly internalizes, constructs and applies these ideas to improvve the quality of their elearning efforts - specifically in one's ability to address the needs of the students one seeks to serve.
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