Should School Teaching be Classified as a Profession? A Twenty First Century Look at this Classic Question

Abstract

The question of whether school teaching should be regarded as a profession
is a long standing, sensitive and important one. Throughout the twentieth century many
people have debated and discussed this concept, resulting in arbitrary and nebulous
models being devised in which to compare against teaching. This has resulted in
teaching often failing to meet these traditional definitions. This paper suggests that
these traditional views of a profession are inappropriate and proposes a new way to
think about this question in the twenty first century.