Reflections on Professionalism

 

I've been thinking a lot about professionalism this year, what it is, what it means and what effects it.  Life can be tumultuous and unpredictable, but with just over two weeks to go before I submit my research proposal at the end of my second year of study I find myself wondering if I've got this wrong?

("Thinking cap" by Identity Photogr@phy is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

I've always tried to be professional in my work.  But what does that mean?  Is it in my behaviour and actions?  Is it in the quality of my work?  Is it in the way I dress and present myself?  Is it in my values and beliefs?  What is it that sets the work of a professional apart from that of a non-professional?  Is a professional hairdresser, plumber or craftsman any more or less professional than a professional businessman, lawyer or teacher?  The more I  read about the concept of professionalism, the more I's amazed at the complexity of the debate surrounding it.  Demirkasimoğlu (2010) provides an excellent overview of how this question of professionalism has persisted and permeated our thinking about teachers as professionals.   

Reading today in Squire et al. (2014) about narrative research I can't help wondering if professionalism is a performative aspect of our identity, an aspect of ourselves that we perform to an audience.  But that leaves me with a lot of questions.  If narratives are always dialogic, then who are we having a dialogue with?  What audience are we performing to? Is it our peers, students, managers, leaders, politicians, the wider public?  Perhaps its all of these audiences all at once, both real and imaginary.  But why does it make a difference when I present myself as a lecturer as opposed to a professional lecturer?  When someone asks me what I do for a living, I often say, "I teach core skills."  Somehow it would feel pretentious to say, "I'm a professional lecturer."

The College Development Network (2020) provide a clear description of the professional practice, knowledge, behaviours, qualities and capabilities that lecturers in colleges are expected to develop, maintain and enhance throughout their careers.  So the people who wrote this document seem to have a good idea what professionalism should look like, at least in the context of Scottish Further Education (FE).  It enumerates a huge descriptive list of behaviours, skills and qualities that describe what a professional should be, how they should behave, how they should act, what they should do...  But in learning about Narrative Inquiry (Squire et al., 2014), I'm learning that a narrative goes beyond description.  Indeed, narrative conveys meaning.  So what is the meaning in this document?  Is the audience not getting what they want?  Is the performance of the actors so far below par that it was deemed necessary to spell out what's expected in specific terms?  

Interestingly, in Tully's (2022) study of professionalism in FE colleges in England, when teachers were asked to define their own professionalism, compliance emerged as the 3rd most dominant theme.  So perhaps teaching is enabled when a framework exists that explains what we should be doing.  And through compliance we are seen to be professional.  But I can't help wondering if, in being so compliant, we contribute to neoliberal management of education though the use of metrics?  Or is there a simpler explanation?  Is it that lecturers and teachers are so afraid of losing their livelihoods that they see no option other than to comply with what's expected?

("Washington DC. Statues of the unemployed of the Great Depression at the FDR Franklin Roosevelt Memorial." by denisbin is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.)

But then a thought occurred to me.  Why did I become a teacher in the first place?  Was it because my parents told me to get good qualification so I can get a good job when I grew up?  My dad was a general labourer, mum was a laundry worker before she retrained at the local FE college to become a hairdresser.  So was this about the white collar/blue collar divide?  I can see that my parents wanted me to "do better" in life than they had.  But the office worker versus tradesman argument doesn't hold up either on examination because what distinguishes a professional hairdresser or a professional mechanic from a professional teacher?  They can all describe themselves as professional.  Interestingly expertise came up as the top theme in Tully's (2022) study.  

Honestly I think money was the issue for my parents.  They didn't want me to have to struggle financially like they did.  But they had this notion that white collar workers were better paid and got treated better than blue collar workers.  But, knowing what I know now, I can honestly say that money isn't the reason anyone becomes a teacher.  I can honestly say I was inspired to become a teacher because I saw how my primary school music teacher, Mrs. Robertson, inspired joy in others.  That idea of service, altruism, making a difference to people's lives and communities is what made me who I am.  That's not something money can buy.  And again, Tully's (2022) study highlights service as the second most common theme arising in his study.  

My point is that I don't think attaching the label of professional to anyone's job title is in any way money related.  Some very professional people are highly underpaid and may not even recognise the value of their own professionalism, while others who are paid well behaving in extremely unprofessional ways.  

So, is professionalism a behaviour?  Is it about status?  Power?  What defines it?  And what effects it?  My whole research thesis up to this point has been built on the notion that changes in infrastructure can effect professionalism.  But what if I'm wrong?  What if professionalism is narratively constructed and enables teachers to do their job in spite of change?  What if professionalism is part of a heroic narrative whereby, in the face of change, teachers can say that they have served their communities to the very best of their ability and made unbelievable sacrifices to ensure their students and their communities thrive?  I know that's the internal dialogue I have with myself on an almost daily basis.

What if I've got this back to front?  Can't help wondering at this point whether I've made a breakthrough in my research or whether I'm only just discovering a flaw in my personal assumptions.  

References

College Development Network (2020) Professional Standards for Lecturers in Scotland’s Colleges [Online].  Available at: https://www.cdn.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Professional-Standards_v5-002.pdf (Accessed 1st July 2023).  

Demirkasimoğlu, N. (2010) ‘Defining “Teacher Professionalism” from different perspectives”, Procedia Social and Behavioural Sciences, Vol. 9, 2047 – 2051, DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.444.

Squire, C., Davis, M., Cigdem, E. Andrews, M. Harrison, B. Hydén, L.-C. and Hydén, M. (2014) What  is Narrative Research?, London, Bloomsbury.  

Tully, P. (2022) ‘Joining the dots: theorizing professionalism in the English Further Education Sector’, Research in Post-Compulsory Education, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 66 – 97, DOI: 10.1080/13596748.2021.2011510