Professionalism, Professionality and the Development of Education Professionals

Abstract

: What purpose is served by renovation or redesign of professionalism, and how successful a process is it likely to be? This article addresses these questions by examining the effectiveness as a professional development mechanism of the imposition of changes to policy and/or practice that require modification or renovation of professionalism. The ‘new’ professionalisms purported to have been fashioned over the last two or three decades across the spectrum of UK education sectors and contexts have been the subject of extensive analysis, and this article avoids going over old ground and revisiting issues that have already been much debated. Nevertheless, the example of UK government education policy during this period is used as a basis for considering the pitfalls associated with mechanisms for modifying professionalism through a reform and standards agenda. The article's analysis incorporates re‐definition and examination of the concept and substance of professionalism and offers new perspectives in the form of three distinct conceptions: demanded, prescribed and enacted professionalism. Exploring the existentialist status of ‘new’ or ‘modified’ professionalisms and the relationship between professionality, professional culture and professionalism, it examines how professionalism may be interpreted and utilised for the development of education professionals.

Teachers’ Perceptions of Professionalism and Professional Development: A Case Study in Greece

“…As Evans (2008) has pointed out, "the rationale for studying professionalism is to increase understanding of and augment the knowledge base relating, inter alia, to the service that professionals provide to society and to how this service may be improved" (p. 35). Moreover, apart from the significance which is given to these two notions, an interrelation between them is also highlighted and it is accepted that teachers' professionalism is linked to and enhanced by professional development (Evans, 2008;Kirkwood & Christie, 2006).…”

“…As Evans (2008) has pointed out, "the rationale for studying professionalism is to increase understanding of and augment the knowledge base relating, inter alia, to the service that professionals provide to society and to how this service may be improved" (p. 35). Moreover, apart from the significance which is given to these two notions, an interrelation between them is also highlighted and it is accepted that teachers' professionalism is linked to and enhanced by professional development (Evans, 2008;Kirkwood & Christie, 2006). This two-way dialog between professionalism and professional development indicates the fact that concepts of professionalism are inherent in professional development policies and practices and professional development implies changes to professionalism (Evans, 2008;Tang & Choi, 2009).…”

“…Several researchers have stressed the difficulty to define the notion of teachers' professionalism due to the inherent complexities such as the incomplete usages or varying meanings (Evans, 2008;Hargreaves & Goodson, 1996;Helsby, 1995). The concept of professionalism is socially constructed (Helsby, 1995;Troman, 1996) and is also "subject to geographical and cultural differences in interpretation, which themselves may change over time" (Helsby, 1995, p. 317).…”

“…1.1.2 Teachers' professional development Teachers' engagement in professional development issues has been extensively underlined as a recent phenomenon (Day, 2001;Collinson & Ono, 2001;Tang & Choi, 2009), and it has been stressed the relationship between professionalism and teachers' professional development (Evans, 2008;Kirkwood & Christie, 2006). Fullan (1995a) argues that the professional development is "the sum total of formal and informal learning pursued and experienced by the teacher in a compelling learning environment under conditions of complexity and dynamic change" (p. 265).…”

“…The concept of professionalism is socially constructed (Helsby, 1995;Troman, 1996) and is also "subject to geographical and cultural differences in interpretation, which themselves may change over time" (Helsby, 1995, p. 317). According to Evans (2008), further and detailed research on professionalism is demanded to understand "the service that professionals provide to society and how this service may be improved" (p. 35). Hargreaves and Goodson (1996) attempted to describe the concept of professionalism as "something which defines and articulates the quality and character of people's actions within that group" (p. 4).…”