Based upon my own analysis, achieving professional status for educators should not be a primary concern for teachers or their proponents. Teaching students so that they can master the material and thereby be properly prepared to move forward in their own education should be the preeminent concern. Of the six trends presented in the text the three which demonstrate the most promise of enabling education to obtain a professional status in American society are professional practice boards, mediated entry and staff development.
Professional practice boards could contribute to education being viewed as a profession if they seriously focused on ensuring that quality instruction occurs in the classroom. The amount of time utilized for school announcements and extracurricular concerns is a potential enemy to quality instruction. National certification by one credentialing body such as the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) may prove problematic. The political organization of the United States leaves great authority to the states. Ballooning federal deficits and unfunded mandates to the states further exacerbate these tensions. Therefore, national efforts in education become over politicized by necessity. It is my opinion that a 50 state strategy which shared a common purpose would be more advantageous, less controversial and accomplish more results in credentialing educators for their employment.
Of the six trends listed in the Foundations of Education (Ornstein, Levine & Gutek, 2011 pp. 36-44) mediated entry has the greatest potential to most positively impact the field of education. On the job training cannot be over emphasized. Teaching is as much an art as it is a science. One’s ability to teach improves with practice. When new teachers are paired with good veteran teachers both the veteran and apprentice can benefit. Much of the technological expertise and theoretical information which are fresh in the mind of the new teacher may prove helpful to the veteran, while the learned experience of the veteran teacher can potentially save the new teacher both time and trouble.
Staff development should be a primary responsibility of the local school principal. It has been my experience, however, that too often the school administration becomes so engrossed in day-to-day operations of the school campus that staff development takes a backseat. Whether it be the department heads, or master teachers someone in each local school should be researching and sharing their findings with all teachers in an effort to continually improve the practice of teaching.
A trend mentioned in the text which can do great damage to the field of education ever being seen as a profession is collective-bargaining. Collective-bargaining hurts the perception and prestige of teachers in the public mind. Nothing can more quickly erode goodwill in the public mind than to see teachers on the picket line, while students miss classes. Besides uniform remuneration is not a characteristic of professionalism. Disparity in pay exists for doctors, engineers, and lawyers. One’s wage is tied to his/her specialty. A surgeon, and general practitioner make different salaries. A corporate tax attorney and a divorce lawyer make different wages and an assistant district attorney makes far less.
Being seen as a professional may be important to teachers but this desire should not take precedence over the purpose of teaching. It is my contention that education will never be considered a profession equal to the practice of medicine or law because the principal source for funding public education in America is taxes. The government does not support any profession. Instead professions are funded on a fee-for-service model. If one’s goal is to make education a profession then its principal source of funding must change. Were one to seriously consider changing the principal source of funding for education then reform movements should stress the importance of education for improving America’s ability to compete in global commerce with the economies of other countries. Were we serious about such global competition then educational funding would no longer be tied to local property taxes but to corporate taxes instead. Then, American corporations, who are principal stakeholders in this global competition, will be investing their money in also improving the nation’s ability to compete globally. It is likely, however, that such investments would introduce disparity in teacher salaries based on subject matter rather than solely on experience or educational attainment.
In conclusion, for teachers ever to be viewed as professionals in the United States, much will have to change. Agreement about what professional teaching practices are will not only have to be determined but depoliticized. Boards of education will have to make mediating the entry of new teachers into the profession a priority which they fund. Administrators and at least some teachers will have to become researchers in residence in each of the local schools. Educational unions must accept that striking is not an option and that uniformity of pay across all disciplines will be a necessary casualty for obtaining professional status. Finally, American corporations must be made to pay in a greater way to fund the excellence in education which they claim is needed for America to compete in the new global economy.
References
Ornstein, A. C., Levine, D. U., & Gutek, G. L. (2011). Foundations of education. (11 ed., p. 555). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
No comments:
Post a Comment