Some Reflections on Education as a Profession

Abstract

In the Preface to his classic study, Education as a Profession, Myron Lieberman charged that "one of the major obstacles to the professionalization of education (was) the widespread failure of the public to understand the conditions necessary for it." Nearly two decades have passed since the publication of Education as a Profession and no doubt public ignorance of the conditions necessary for the professionalization of education is as widespread as it ever was. But what is more discouraging is the continuing evidence of the widespread failure of educators, themselves, to understand the conditions necessary for their professionalization. Symptomatic of this failure is the ubiquitous and indiscriminate usage of the term 'professional' by educators. This term is used and misused to describe (and prescribe) all manner of diverse behaviour (e.g., "Tardiness is unprofessional, etc.".) Indeed, it is progressively less clear whether the term 'professional' is a noun or merely an adjective ( or worse, a slogan) used to characterize certain things considered desirable at the moment.