There has been an argument about teaching as a profession for many years. Some characteristics of a profession are considered to be a lengthy period of specialized training, a sense of public service and a lifetime commitment to a career, control over licensing standards and/or entry requirements and a defined body of knowledge and skills beyond that grasped by laypersons. Out of the characteristics listed above, a defined body of knowledge and skills beyond that grasped by laypersons and control over licensing standards and/or entry requirements are seen as parts of a profession that teaching tends to miss the mark in compared to the professions such as law and medicine (31). The problem with the defined body of knowledge is that there is no agreed-upon knowledge. With controlling the requirements for entry and licensing there is a variation in certification and a bigger debate about alternative certification. This is the idea that teachers would be recruited from college educated retirees, industrial workers and experienced people seeking a second career. Many teachers see this action as a threat to the profession because they do not think that just anyone can teach just because they have this greater knowledge of a subject. I have always thought of teaching as a profession and it is weird that it is only looked at as a semi profession. I understand that there is a “definition” for a profession but I am glad to read that the teaching profession is changing things and possibly making its way towards having a successful professional title.
Staff development is a strong focus for many teachers and administrators. It is further education and training for the entire school district’s teaching staff. Some states require teachers to participate in the development programs in order to maintain their teaching certificates. Other staff members, such as younger teachers, tend to use staff development programs to pursue new degrees, such as a Master’s degree. Staff development programs are also used to improve the knowledge and skills in using educational technology. This helps the teachers expand their thinking from simple word processing actions to teach the use of internet resources (39). With my mom being a teacher, I have a great understanding for the idea of staff development. Our district always has training days and seminars about this or that. My mom also went back to school so that she could be certified in reading and now she teaches reading in a Middle School classroom. However, she has never had the desire to get her masters, but there have been a lot of teachers more recently that have decided to pursue that.
There are two major organizations. One is the National Education Association (NEA) and the other is the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The NEA includes both teachers and administrators at the national level and they oppose teachers going on strike. The research division of the NEA conducts annual studies on the status of the profession. The AFT has a wider range of members such as nurses and nonprofessional school personnel such as cafeteria, custodial, maintenance, and transportation workers. They have not supported as much research as the NEA and they require that their members join at the local, state, and national organizations together. A copy of the publications from both the AFT and the NEA are sent to my house on a normal basis. While looking through the magazine for the AFT I saw a lot of things about action and democracy. One of the articles that I read was about the retirees taking on the battle of collective bargaining. These retirees still wanted to be a part of the union family. They have been speaking out and demanding living wage, good health insurance, and secure retirement pension for all ( “It’s our fight, too, American Teacher, May/June 2011, p. 17). In the NEA magazine, I read an article titled “Educators Must Not Be Silenced”. The article talks about teachers being concerned with the politicians having an unchecked power to make decisions for the educators and the students. They talked about the action in Wisconsin when the governor dismantled collective bargaining and didn’t allow anyone to have a say in the class size, funding, and vouchers and claimed that it was to save money. In reality he took away the voice of the middle class and crushed the unions. The article talked about merit pay and collective bargaining, both terms that were used in the chapter from today’s reading. The article is urging people to sign a petition that will maybe get the politicians to stop the power struggle and to be more negotiable (Educators Are Under Attack, NEA today, May/June 2011, p. 28-30). I have not had a lot of prior knowledge about these two organizations but I think that it would be beneficial to stay more up to date in everything going on in education. It is easy to let it all slip by and ignore it when I am just starting out. I am interested to see how the unions and government policies will play out over the next 5 years. Their decisions could really affect me one day when I am out in the working force.
Jenna,
ReplyDeleteYour making good progress! This second post is better organized. I see three clear ideas from your reading, and you explain them well. You made connections to outside reading and to your personal experience.
I'll try to expain two more ideas/goals for your future posts:
1. Connection to Plantinga and worldview--how does what you read in Engaging God's World speak to the idea? Eg. for staff development, you might bring in the idea of learning and growing professionally because all of God's world is good and worth knowing; for teacher organizations, you could talk about the cultural mandate (pp. 31-33) and idea of stewardship and evaluate whether these organizations are stewarding the resources given them or creating the kind of culture that mirrors creational norms.
2. Keep moving toward a more formal, academic writing. I'll give you ideas/template tomorrow.
Good work for post 2. We'll talk tomorrow afternoon. Have a good night.
Prof. Mattson