This document discusses teaching as a profession and the key aspects of teacher professionalism. It defines teaching as a profession according to several criteria, such as requiring extensive training, serving an important social function, and being self-regulated. The document outlines three key aspects of teacher professionalism: teaching as a moral and ethical activity, mastery of teaching skills and content knowledge, and working within the legal and policy framework including national teaching standards. It provides examples of the laws and policies that govern teachers' work.

1. The Teaching Profession:
Becoming a Teacher Today
Dr Rachel Buchanan
Rachel.Buchanan@newcastle.edu.au

2. Today’s note are about…….
o The idea of teaching as a profession
o 3 aspects of teacher professionalism
1. Teaching as a moral and ethical activity
2. Mastery of content knowledge and pedagogy (teaching
craft)
3. Practice within legal and policy framework with a focus on
national accreditation
Objectives
 Critically engage with the notion of teaching as a
profession.
 Critically engage with theories that claim to capture the
complexity of teachers’ knowledge.

3. Key Terms
 Accreditation – Process of certification,
signifying competence, capability, authority
or credibility.
 Education policy - government policy in
relating to education
 Ethics – Collective, or shared beliefs as to
the nature of right and wrong
Dr Rachel Buchanan
3

4. CONTINUNITY AND CHANGE
Some things in teaching have
changed a lot and some things
haven’t!
Consider:
o 3 things that have changed
o 3 things that have remained the same

5. What is a profession?
'A disciplined group of individuals who adhere to high
ethical standards and uphold themselves to, and are
accepted by, the public as possessing special knowledge
and skills in a widely recognised, organised body of
learning derived from education and training at a high
level, and who are prepared to exercise this knowledge
and these skills in the interest of others. Inherent in
this definition is the concept that the responsibility for
the welfare, health and safety of the community shall
take precedence over other considerations.‘
(Australian Council of Professions)
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6. Features of a profession
1. Extensive training of at least 3 years
2. Training includes a significant intellectual component
3. Trained abilities provide a significant service to society
4. Process of certification or formal credentialing
5. Organisation of members
6. Autonomy in individual’s work
(Bayles, 1989)
Dr Rachel Buchanan
6

7. Definition of a Teacher
a) means a person who, in a school, undertakes duties that
include the delivery of an educational program or the
assessment of student participation in an educational
program; and
(b) includes a person employed as the principal or the head of a
school whether or not that person undertakes the duties of a
teacher if the person has been employed as a teacher in any
school prior to being employed as the principal or head of a
school; and
(c) does not include a teacher's aide, a teacher's assistant or a
student teacher.
Part 2.6 Education and Training Reform Act 2006
Dr Rachel Buchanan
7

8. The continuing quest to be recognised as
a profession
 Professionalisation refers to the quest “to be publicly
acknowledged as ‘professionals’, and of teachers, unions and
associations to establish teaching … on the same level as, for
example, medicine and law” (Helsby & McCulloch, 1996, p. 56)
 Connell (2009) argues that “teaching is…a little understood
occupation. Many people in other jobs imagine that teaching is an
easy task that they could do at the drop of a hat. But it’s not, and
they couldn’t. Teacher’s working conditions are often
misunderstood” (p. 336).
 Do you think teaching is a respected profession,
on par with medicine and law, or do you think it
is misunderstood?

9. Key aspects of teacher professionalism
 Professionalism: The competence or skill expected of
a professional.
 Teaching as a moral and ethical activity
 Mastery of content knowledge and pedagogy (teaching
craft)
 Practice within legal and policy framework

10. Teaching is a moral endeavour
Teaching is fundamentally and critically a moral activity; to teach is
to influence the present and future by affecting the lives of
particularly vulnerable others – children.
Hannah Arendt:
“And education, too, is where
we...prepare [children] in
advance for the task of
renewing a common world”
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11. Teacher professionalism: Morality and
ethics
 The strange case of the naked teachers…..
Check out this story. Link is on Blackboard
http://www.news.com.au/national/nude-sacking-teacher-lynne-
tziolas-wants-justice/story-e6frfkp9-1225760181161

12. Teachers as moral and ethical agents
 Ethics: Collective or shared beliefs as to the nature of right or wrong.
Ethics tend to be codified into a formal system or set of rules which are
explicitly adopted by a group of people. Professional ethics are explicit
rules or standards governing the conduct of a member of a profession.
 Morals: Personal beliefs about right and wrong. Morals are often
influenced by those around us (family, friends) and our social
(community/group) context.
 What judgements did you make about the strange case of the
naked teachers?
 Were these ethical or moral judgements?

13. Teacher professionalism: Teaching
craft
 Mastery of specialised knowledge and the skills which come from
these :
- Discipline content knowledge linked with
- Pedagogical (teaching craft) knowledge
 If you want to learn something well, offer to teach it - Through the
process of planning and teaching specific content, teachers develop
more powerful forms of subject mater knowledge.
 (This idea from respected educator and researcher Lee Shulman -
http://www.leeshulman.net/domains-pedagogical-content-
knowledge.html

14. Teacher professionalism: The law
 Practice within legal and policy framework
 How many laws do you think teachers are currently governed
by?

15. Teacher professionalism: The law
Here are some of the laws that teachers in NSW are governed
by:
 Education Act 1990
 Teaching Services Act 1980
 Education Teaching Service Regulation 2001
 Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998
 Crimes Act 1900
 Anti-Discrimination Act 1977
 Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000
 Freedom of Information Act 1989
 Public Finance and Audit Act 1983
 Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998
 Child Protection (Prohibited Employment) Act 1998

16. Legal Framework
DET Code of Conduct
16
•Reporting concerns about
employee conduct
•Respect for people
•Duty of care
•Professional relationships
between employees and
students
•Appropriate use of electronic
communication and social
networking sites
•Use of drugs, alcohol and
tobacco
•Identifying and managing
conflicts of interest
•Recruitment
•Declaring gifts, benefits and
bribes
•Private and secondary
employment
•Protecting confidential
information
•Managing your political,
community and personal
activities
•Lobbying
•Post separation employment
•Signatures
•Personal references
•Using public resources wisely
•Copyright and intellectual
property
•Record keeping
http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/rs14/rs14.h
tml

17. Teacher professionalism: Policy
(don’t yawn this is important!)
 What is policy?
 “Policy is the name we give to deliberative, “official” statements about
social goals…and the strategies to put these in place. Policy…is
about…means towards ends.” (Welch, 2007, p. 2).
 “Public policy is a purposive and consistent course of action produced as
a response to a perceived problem of a constituency, formulated by a
specific political process, and adopted, implemented, and enforced by a
public agency.” http://profwork.org/pp/study/define.html
 Put simply policy is officially what needs to be done and why it needs
doing and this is made officially through certain agencies.

18. Policy is a bit like an onion. There are lots
of layers to it!
Macrosystem: national and
global context
Exosystem: broader community
and institutional context
Mesosystem: immediate community
Microsystem: individual level
This model adopted from Bronfenbrenner (1986).

19. Layers of education policy
Macrosystem: National and global context
Exosystem: State government level
Mesosystem: School and community level
Microsystem: individual classroom level
This model adopted from Bronfenbrenner (1986).
What education policies do
you know about?
Which layer does that
education policy fit into?

20. Let’s look at one important national
policy framework:
Teacher accreditation
 What is accreditation?
 A process of certification signifying competence, capability,
authority or credibility.
 Why is it important?
 Accreditation frameworks attempt to define the technical core of
teaching and ensure there are valid ways to evaluate
“quality” in relation to these technical core.
 The BIG question is: Will this produce “quality” in
teaching that positively affects student learning?

21. “Teaching standards are not a magic bullet. By themselves
they cannot solve the problems of dysfunctional school
organization, outmoded curricula, inequitable allocation of
resources, or lack of social supports for children and youth.
Standards, like all reforms hold their own dangers. Standard
setting in all professions must be vigilant against the possibilities
that practice could become constrained by the codification of
knowledge that does not significantly acknowledge legitimate
diversity of approaches or advances in the field; that access to
practice could become overly restricted on grounds not directly
related to competence; or that adequate learning opportunities
for candidates to meet standards may not emerge on an
equitable basis.”
Darling- Hammond’s (1999, p.39).

22. What does accreditation look like in
Australia?
DOMAINS OF
TEACHING
STANDARDS
Professional
Knowledge
1.Know students and how they learn
2. Know the content and how to teach it
Professional Practice 3. Plan for and implement effective
teaching and learning
4. Create and maintain supportive and
safe learning environments
5.Assess, provide feedback and report on
student learning
Professional
Engagement
6. Engage in professional learning
7. Engage professionally with colleagues,
parents/carers and the community
National Professional
Standards for Teachers
3 domains,
7 Standards, classified by
professional career stages:
Graduate, Proficient, Highly
Accomplished and Lead.
Under each of the 7
standards are focus areas
(37 areas in total)
http://www.teacherstandards.aitsl.edu.au/

23. Watch the AITSL Animation
The Australian Professional Standards for
Teachers (link in Blackboard)

24. So what have we learnt today and why
was it important?
o The idea of teaching as a profession
o 3 aspects of teacher professionalism
1. Teaching as a moral and ethical activity
2. Mastery of content knowledge and pedagogy (teaching craft)
3. Practice within legal and policy framework with a focus on national
accreditation
As future teachers, what questions have been raised for you?


25. References
Bayles, M. D. (1989). Professional Ethics (2nd ed.). Belmont, California: Wadsworth
Publishing Company.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development:
Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22(6), 723-742.
Connell, R. (2010). Teachers. In R. Connell, C. Campbell, A. Welch, D. Foley & N.
Bagnel, (Ed.s). Education, Change & Society (2nd Ed.) (pp. 336 - 356). Sydney: Oxford
University Press.
Darling-Hammond, L. (1999). Reshaping Teacher Policy, Preparation and Practice:
Influences ion the National Board for Teaching Professional Standards. Washington, DC:
AACTE Publications.
Helsby, G., & McCulloch, G. (1996). Teacher Professionalism and Curriculum Control. In
I. F. Goodson & A. Hargreaves (Eds.), Teachers' Professional Lives (pp. 56-74). London:
Falmer Press.
Vick, M. (2004). Watching the clock: Changes and continuity in schools and society. In J.
Allen (Ed.), Sociology of education: Possibilities and practices (pp. 54-80). South
Melbourne: Thomson.
Welch, A. (2007). Making Education Policy. In R. Connell, C. Campbell, M. Vickers, A.
Welch, D. Foley and N. Bagnall (Eds.), Education, Change and Society (pp. 1–33),
Sydney: Oxford University Press.