1. Professionalism, professionality and the status of the teaching profession
invited seminar paper presented at the University of Ballarat School of Education
7th July 2008
Dr Linda Evans
School of Education, University of Leeds, UK

2. The changing face of teacher professionalism in England
practically no centrally imposed curricular regulations
religious education
daily assembly – ‘broadly Christian’
anything goes
autonomous professionalism
late 1980s – mid 1990s (the market phase)
Educational Reform Act (ERA)
national curriculum
local management of schools (LMS)
a ‘new’ professionalism/re-professionalism?
professionalism determined by market forces
client-led focus
1997 – present (the targets phase: standards & modernisation agenda)
pursuit of excellence
literacy and numeracy targets
managerialism
pressured professionalism
SPLIT INTO 3 PHASES – EACH PHASE FADING IN ON DISAPPEARANCE OF PREVIOUS

3. Context and objectives
‘new’ or modified professionalisms arising from the ‘standards and modernisation agenda’
how successfully have professionalisms been renovated?
what have been the effects on teachers and the status of the teaching profession?

4. Key foci ‘new’ professionalism as an instrument of change
the concept of professionalism
the substance of professionalism
(re)defining professionalism
the capacity of reform for achieving professional development
the concept of professional development
the substance of professional development

5. The concept of professionalism
Literature review:
socially constructed
contextually variable
service level agreement
defined externally
defined by the professionals themselves
constantly being redefined
status
homogeneity

6. ‘New’ professionalisms
prescriptive
descriptive
analytical commentaries
research reports and analyses
key feature – reduced autonomy and control
re-professionalisation
proletarianisation

7. Professionality Eric Hoyle:
professionalism - status-related
the institutional component of professionalisation
professionality - knowledge, skills & procedures
the service component of professionalisation
‘extended’-‘restricted’ professionality continuum

8. Professionality orientation: teachers
Eric Hoyle, 1975
‘Restricted’ professionality
Skills derived from experience
Perspective limited to the immediate in time and place
Introspective with regard to methods
Value placed on autonomy
Infrequent reading of professional literature
Teaching seen as an intuitive activity
‘Extended’ professionality
Skills derived from a mediation between experience & theory
Perspective embracing the broader social context of education
Methods compared with those of colleagues and reports of practice
Value placed on professional collaboration
Regular reading of professional literature
Teaching seen as a rational activity

9. The ‘restricted’-’extended’ teacher professionality continuum

10. Professionality and professionalism
Professionality is: an ideologically-, attitudinally-, intellectually-, and epistemologically-based stance on the part of an individual, in relation to the practice of the profession to which s/he belongs, and which influences her/his professional practice.
Evans, L. (2002) Reflective Practice in Educational Research (London, Continuum)
Hoyle (2008) ‘the service component of professionalism’

11. Professionality and professionalism
Professionalism is:
the ‘plural’ of professionality;
professionality writ large;
the amalgamation of individuals’ professionalities.
Professionalism is: professionality-influenced practice that is consistent with commonly-held consensual delineations of a specific profession and that both contributes to and reflects perceptions of the profession’s purpose and status and the specific nature, range and levels of service provided by, and expertise prevalent within, the profession, as well as the general ethical code underpinning this practice.
(Evans, L. (2008) ‘Professionalism, professionality and the development of education professionals’, British Journal of Educational Studies, 56 (1), 20-38)

12. Professionalism and professionality
Professionality is: an ideologically-, attitudinally-, intellectually-, and epistemologically-based stance on the part of an individual, in relation to the practice of the profession to which s/he belongs, and which influences her/his professional practice.
Professionalism is: the perceived enactment of professionality-influenced practice that is consistent with commonly-held consensual delineations of a specific profession and that both contributes to and reflects perceptions of the profession’s purpose and status and the specific nature, range and levels of service provided by and expertise prevalent within the profession.

13. The impact of government policy on teacher professionalism
A closer look at professionalism
2 main perspectives:
subjective professionalism
objective professionalism
3 reified states of professionalism
Professionalism that is demanded or requested
specific service level demands or requests
Professionalism that is prescribed
envisaged or recommended service levels
Professionalism that is enacted
as observed
Only the 3rd of these is ‘real’

14. From ‘demanded’ to ‘enacted’ professionalism
The capacity of reform for achieving professional development
A ‘new’ professionalism isn’t a ‘new’ professionalism unless it is enacted.
Reform or policy change is a professional development initiative
How may reformers or change agents achieve professional development within a professionality-influenced professionalism?

15. Key components of professionalism
Subjective
professionalism
Intellectual
component
Attitudinal
component
Functional
component
epistemological
dimension
rationalistic
comprehensive
evaluative
dimension
motivational
perceptional
procedural
dimension
productive
processual
NEEDS ANIMATING

16. intellectual component What do practitioners know and understand?
What does the professional
knowledge base comprise?
Are there specialist areas?
Are there minimum (general)
practitioner knowledge
requirements?
comprehensive
dimension
What is the basis of practitioners’
knowledge?
Common sense and experience?
Research and/or scholarship?
In which disciplines/subjects?
What depth?
What width?
Contextual differences?
epistemological
dimension
To what extent do practitioners
apply reason to decision making?
Is practice underpinned by
rationality, intuition, or a mediation
of the two?
rationalistic
dimension

17. attitudinal component How do practitioners perceive things
(issues, situations, people, activity, etc.)?
How do they perceive their profession
and its purpose?
What perceptions do practitioners
hold?
What perceptions do they not hold?
How widespread/consensual are specific
perceptions?
Are there any key/core perceptions?
perceptual
dimension
How do practitioners evaluate things
(issues, situations, people, activity, etc.)?
How do they evaluate their profession
and its purpose?
What values do practitioners hold?
How widespread/consensual are these
values?
Are there any key/core values?
evaluative
dimension
How motivated are practitioners?
What motivates them?
How motivated are practitioners?
What motivates them?
motivational
dimension

18. functional component What processes do practitioners
apply to their practice?
Advising?
Educating?
Regulating?
Policy analysis?
Knowledge generation?
Learning?
Inter-institutional collegiality?
processual
dimension
What procedures do practitioners
apply to their practice?
What hierarchical procedures
operate within the workforce?
What stratification exists within the
workforce?
Mode(s) of communication?
Mode(s) of implementing policy?
Mode(s) of regulating?
Mode(s) of innovating?
How is responsibility distributed -
for knowledge/role coverage?
What layers of practice exist?
procedural
dimension
What is the nature of practitioners’
output?
How much do practitioners
produce?
What (if any) productive
yardsticks guide them?
What do practitioners ‘do’ – their
remit and responsibilities?
Is their workload determined by the
clock – set hours?
Is workload determined by the task –
in response to need?
productive
dimension

19. The capacity of reform for achieving professional development
The problems
Reform or policy change initiators:
focus predominantly on achieving functional development;
ignore, or neglect, the importance of attitudinal and, in some cases, intellectual development;
are unaware of, minimize, or ignore the professionality-influenced heterogeneity of professionalism;
manifest simplistic, naïve inadequate understanding of human nature.

20. The professional development process
The process involves enhancing individuals’ professionality.
progression along the professionality continuum
What does the professional development process in individuals involve?

21. The professional development process in individuals
Components:
recognition that there’s an alternative
a better way
‘encountering’ a specific alternative
evaluating the specific alternative
recognising the specific alternative as a better way
implies recognition of the perceived relative inadequacies of previous practice/views/knowledge etc.
adoption of the perceived better way
evaluation of the newly adopted practice/views/attitudes etc. as better than what it/they replaced
Evans (2008) work-in-progress

22. Professional development through reform or policy change
Dependent upon:
attitudinal development on the part of the ‘developed’ or ‘developee’ that is congruent with the reform/change agenda;
shared perceptions of deficiencies and imperfections;
shared perceptions of what constitutes a ‘better way’;
change initiators’ willingness to accommodate this heterogeneity.

23. The effect of imposed policy & reform on teacher professionalism
Has teacher professionalism been redesigned?
on one level, undoubtedly
compare 1970s with present day
on another level …
the professionality range remains wide
lack of uniformity/homogeneity
much ‘irony of presentation’
‘manifests itself in the manner in which members of an organization present an image of the organization to the outside world that is not wholly congruent with the reality of its daily practices.’
(Hoyle, E. and Wallace, M. (2007) Educational reform: an ironic perspective, Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, 35(1) 9–25 )
the ‘paying lip service’ approach
‘pernicious differences between the “paper” and the “real”’
(Stronach, I. et al (2002) Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: teacher and nurse identities in flux’, Journal of Education Policy, 17 (1), )

24. Professional status
Have teachers lost any of their status as professionals?
Is teaching any less of a profession than it previously was?
How do we define a profession?
How important is it to be a profession?
Developmentalism is professionalism re-invented and re-named, for greater applicability to 21st century working life.

25. Developmentalism … means a commitment to (self-)develop(ment).
is an antidote to complacency.
is the mindset that engages practitioners in the business of striving to improve their practice.
manifests itself as relatively frequent and regular engagement in ‘ostensible CPD’.
is a component of the individual’s stance in relation to the practice of the profession to which s/he belongs, and which influences her/his professional practice
professionality

26. Practitioners with a strong developmentalist attitude will typically:
be analytical and self-critical in evaluating their own practice;
manifest single-minded concern for the quality of their work;
continually strive for excellence, according to her/his own definition and measurement of it;
perceive each new task as a challenge: an opportunity to perform better, and achieve more, than ever before;
be ‘extended’ professionals.

27. From professionalism to developmentalism
The calibrations on the ‘profession - semi-profession – non-profession’ yardstick are being increasingly blurred.
How may we make qualitatively-based distinctions between occupational groups?
Developmentalism
autonomous developmentalism
compliant developmentalism
How developmentalist are teachers, in comparison with other occupational groups?