Discourses of Teacher Professionalism: “From Within” and “From Without” or Two Sides of the Same Coin?
Keywords:
teacher professionalism, teacher federations, discourse analysisAbstract
Drawing on data from a larger doctoral study, this paper specifically explores influences on the discourses of professionalism amongst a sample of highly engaged members of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). Based on the assumption that discourse takes shape within a highly politicized system of socialization where language plays a significant role in the maintenance of particular power structures and the cultures that support them (Hilferty, 2004), the case suggests that the professionalism discourses of teachers and their unions and those of government are not necessarily as mutually exclusive as they are often presented in the literature.
References
Adams, T. (2015). Sociology of professions: International divergences and research directions. Work, Employment and Society, 29(1), 154-165.
Anderson, S. E., Ben Jaafar, S. (2003). Policy trends in Ontario education, 1990-2003. Toronto: International Centre for Educational Change.
Ball, S. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228.
Bangs, J. & Frost, D. (2012). Teacher self-efficacy, voice and leadership: Towards a policy framework for Education International. Paper presented at the Education International Research Institute, Cambridge, UK, February.
Bangs, J. & MacBeath, J. (2012). Collective leadership: the role of teacher unions in encouraging teachers to take the lead in their own learning and in teacher policy. Professional Development in Education, 38(2), 331-43.
Beck, J. (2008). Governmental professionalism: Re-professionalizing or de-professionalizing teachers in England? British Journal of Educational Studies, 56(2), 119-143.
Caplan, G. (2012, September 14). Punishing Ontario students to make a point will backfire. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/punishing-ontario-students-to-make-a-point-will-backfire/article4545330/
DeQuetteville, J. (2008, October). Supporting members’ professional growth in times of change. ETFO Voice, 11(1), 28-31.
Evetts, J. (2003) The sociological analysis of professionalism: Occupational change in the modern world. International Sociology 18(2): 395-415
Evetts, J. (2011). A new professionalism? Challenges and opportunities. Current Sociology, 59(4), 406-422.
Fournier, V. (1999). The appeal to “professionalism” as a disciplinary mechanism. Social Review 47(2), 280–307.
Gidney, R. D. (1999). From hope to Harris: The reshaping of Ontario’s schools. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.
Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. (2012). The far side of educational reform. Ottawa: Canadian Teachers’ Federation.
Hilferty, F. (2004). Teacher professionalism defined and enacted: A comparative case study of two subject teaching associations (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Hilferty, F. (2008). Theorizing teacher professionalism as an enacted discourse of power. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(2), 161-173.
Howlett, K. (2012, September 11). Teachers unions vow action after Ontario bill passed. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 20th, 2012 from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/teachers-unions-vow-action-after-ontario-bill-passed/article4536303/
Lipman, P. (2011). The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the City. New York: Routledge.
McClelland, C. E. (1990) Escape from Freedom? Reflections on German Pro-fessionalization 1870–1933. In R. Torstendahl and M. Burrage (Eds.), The formation of professions: Knowledge, state and strategy (pp. 97–113). London: Sage.
McCulloch, G., Helsby, G. & Knight, P. (2000). The politics of professionalism: Teachers and the curriculum. London: Continuum.
MacDonald, F.J. (2006). Suspended in perpetuity? Teacher professional identity in a time of educational reform. PhD Thesis, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
MacLellan, D. (2009). Neoliberalism and Ontario teachers’ unions: A ‘not-so’ common sense revolution. Socialist Studies: The Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies, 5, 51-74.
Ozga J. (1995). Deskilling a profession: Professionalism, deprofessionalisation and the new managerialism. In R. Sarah & H. Busher (Eds.), Managing teachers as professionals in schools (pp. 21-37). London: Cassell.
Robertson, S. L. (2012). Placing teachers in global governance agendas. Comparative Education Review, 56(4), 584-607.
Sachs, J. (2003). The activist teaching profession. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Skorbach, K. (2012, December 8). Ontario elementary school teachers begin one-day rotating strikes. The Epoch Times. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/canada/ontario-elementary-school-teachers-begin-one-day-rotating-strikes-322980.html
Thomas, S. (2005). Taking teachers out of the equation: Constructions of teachers in education policy documents over a ten-year period. Australian Educational Researcher 32(3), 45-62.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
