Lifelong Learning and Teacher Professionalism Debates

Introduction: The Complexity of Teaching as a Profession

Teaching is often described as one of the noblest of all professions. What is less often acknowledged is how difficult a profession it is. Part of this difficulty arises from the fact that the standards by which teachers are judged shift from year to year. These standards, while purporting to arise from concern for providing the nation's children with the best possible education, are in fact often more reflective of political changes in thinking about pedagogy. Against a backdrop of shifting political winds and genuine complexity about what constitutes the most effective ways of teaching, it is difficult for teachers to make well-informed decisions about how to engage in lifelong learning activities that will truly benefit their students while also helping them pursue their own personal career goals. This paper examines some of the key issues in this complex topic.

Political Shifts and the Redefinition of Teacher Professionalism

Shain has written some of the most trenchant analysis of this topic, noting that the ways in which teachers are judged — and the larger question of how the idea of professionalism within the teaching sector is defined — are affected by politics and broader shifts in society that reflect evolving ideas about the relative importance and responsibility of the state versus private interests:

"This analysis reveals that 'public sector' notions of teacher professionalism committed to notions of service to community and teacher autonomy are challenged by market liberal reform committed to privatisation and deregulation in ways that suggest deprofessionalisation proceeds alongside reprofessionalisation as part of an ongoing politics of knowledge, power and social organisation. Seddon encourages researchers to consider the character and parameters of preferred reprofessionalisations that might be pursued through contemporary processes of educational change." (Shain, n.d.)

Shain argues that one of the key sites of this shift in recasting the roles and responsibilities of teachers is in the "industry" of Further Education and lifelong learning. Further Education for teachers has brought into the state-sponsored education system "the discipline of the market" and has emphasized ideologies such as Total Quality Management (TQM) that encourage "the internalisation of control, and surveillance of workers."

Market Ideology and Managerialism in Further Education

Another controlling feature is the way in which managerialism turns senior professionals — who might otherwise resist the loss of professional autonomy — into managers, "by giving them budgets or by setting them adrift as quasi-autonomous business units." This led to a shift in the locus of control from the centre to the local college site, with power invested in the Principal as manager for the state in face-to-face relations (Shain, n.d.).

Such a model, as promoted by Further Education courses and by other aspects of the educational hierarchy, runs counter to the more traditional model of the teacher as a master worker — essentially analogous to a master craftsperson in a guild or craft system (Hargreaves, 1994, p. 71).

One of the central dynamics in the current education profession is a push toward treating teaching as a formal profession. While this might sound as if it would rebound to the advantage of teachers — who does not want to be considered a professional, after all? — it has in practice stripped a great deal of authority from them. The constant push toward further professionalization and lifelong learning has effectively reduced the importance of experience and the craft-based perspective within the power structure of the teaching profession (Hager, Gonczi, & Athanasou, 1994, p. 13).

Conclusion

It is not clear from the research whether this push-back against managerialism and toward a more holistic version of professionalism is residual — a holdover from a generation of teachers who were inspired to teach in a truly professional way. If this attitude was indeed brought into the profession by those who are now veterans, one can only hope that they pass on these values before they retire.

References

Clow, R. (2001). Further education teachers' constructions of professionalism. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 53(3), 407–420.

Hager, P., Gonczi, A., & Athanasou, J. (1994). General issues about assessment of competence. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 19, 3–16.

Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times. London: Cassell.

Randle, K., & Brady, N. (1997). Managerialism and professionalism in the 'Cinderella service.' Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 49, 121–139.

Robson, J. (1998). A profession in crisis: Status, culture and identity in the further education college. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 50, 585–607.

Shain, F. (n.d.). Changing notions of teacher professionalism in the Further Education sector. Retrieved from

Tomlinson, J. (1996). Inclusive learning. Coventry: Further Education Funding Council.