Teacher Professionalism

A teacher who has been in the staff room for ten years and one who has just qualified can both call themselves teachers. The label is the same. The professionalism, in many cases, is not. The difference often comes down to whether the teacher has built a reflective practice or not.

Reflective practice is one of the main routes to teacher professionalism. The connection is not decorative. It is structural.

Is good teaching a consequence of reflective practice?

Reflective practice, in Donald Schon’s 1983 framing, is the habit of inquiring and investigating a problem situation in order to understand how to frame a solution. A teacher who does this regularly is doing something different from one who does not.

Reflective practice is also a way of studying your own experiences to improve the way you work. It is useful for any professional who wants to keep learning across a career. The act of reflection is one of the strongest ways to increase confidence and become a more proactive, qualified professional.

The claim being made here is not that reflective practice produces good teaching automatically. The claim is that reflective practice is a habit that, when sustained, tends to develop the qualities that make a teacher more professional.

Three dimensions of professionalism that reflective practice strengthens

Three dimensions stand out.

Calibre

Calibre is the quality of the teacher’s craft. A high-calibre teacher knows their subject deeply, has a wide repertoire of methods, and exercises judgement that other professionals respect.

Reflective practice strengthens calibre in several ways.

First, it pushes the teacher to challenge assumptions of pedagogical practice rather than accept them. A teacher who has reflected on why they teach a topic in a particular way has thought about it. A teacher who has not is repeating what they were taught.

Second, it helps the teacher stay current with established principles of practice. Reflection makes the teacher hungry for new ideas, because they have noticed gaps in their own work that need filling.

Third, it refines the art of teaching. Each cycle of reflection produces small improvements that, accumulated over years, distinguish a high-calibre teacher from one who has merely been teaching for a long time.

Discourse

Teacher professionalism through reflective practice is supported by discourse. Dialogue helps in cultivating professional confidence, articulating professional beliefs, and learning from others.

A teacher who reflects regularly develops a vocabulary for talking about teaching. They can describe what they do, why they do it, and what evidence they have that it works. This is the discourse of a professional.

Discourse matters in three places.

1. In the staff room. Teachers who can talk about teaching at the level of method and theory raise the level of conversation across the school.
2. With parents and the community. A teacher who can articulate professional beliefs in plain language earns trust that a teacher who only speaks in slogans does not.
3. With other teachers globally. The teaching profession has a shared body of language. Teachers who participate in it are part of a wider conversation.

A teacher without discourse is locked into their own school and their own experience. A teacher with discourse is a member of a profession.

Knowledge creation

A reflective teacher does not only consume knowledge. They create it.

Knowledge creation in teaching takes three forms.

1. Critical thinking and observation. The teacher does not accept the standard story. They look at their own classroom and ask whether the standard story is true here.
2. Framing and challenging theories. The teacher uses theories as lenses, not as final answers. When a theory does not fit their evidence, they challenge the theory.
3. Producing models of practice. Over time, a reflective teacher develops their own theories of practice that work in their specific context. These can be shared, tested, and adopted by other teachers.

Knowledge creation is what distinguishes a profession from a trade. Teachers who only execute someone else’s lesson plans are tradespeople. Teachers who develop their own informed practice are professionals.

How the three dimensions interact

The three dimensions reinforce each other.

A teacher who works on calibre needs to articulate what they have learned, which builds discourse. A teacher with strong discourse can engage in conversations that challenge their thinking, which builds knowledge creation. A teacher creating knowledge has new things to refine in their practice, which builds calibre.

Skip any one dimension and the others stall. A teacher with strong calibre but weak discourse cannot share what they know, and the calibre dies with them when they retire. A teacher with strong discourse but weak calibre talks well but teaches poorly. A teacher creating knowledge but with weak calibre or discourse produces ideas that do not reach anyone.

The point is to develop all three together, with reflective practice as the engine.

A practical sign of teacher professionalism

A working test for whether a teacher is operating as a professional in this sense.

1. Can they describe a recent lesson in technical terms? Talking about what they did, why they did it, what worked, and what did not, with reference to method or theory.
2. Can they name three things they have learned in the last six months that have changed their teaching? Not three articles they read. Three changes in practice.
3. Can they articulate a professional belief and back it with evidence from their own teaching? A real belief, not a slogan, with real evidence, not anecdote.

A teacher who can do all three has a working professional practice. A teacher who can do one or two has work to do. A teacher who can do none is treating teaching as a job rather than a profession.

This is not a judgement. It is a clear signal of what to develop.

Why this matters in the wider field

Teacher professionalism is also a political question, because the autonomy that the profession is given depends on the professionalism it shows.

A profession that produces high-calibre teachers, articulate discourse, and new knowledge earns its autonomy. A profession that produces low-calibre teachers, weak discourse, and no new knowledge gets that autonomy taken away. Curricula are imposed from outside. Methods are mandated by policy. Teachers become technicians.

Reflective practice is not only personal development. It is one of the things the profession does to defend its standing. A school that supports reflective practice is supporting the profession as a whole.

Flashcard

What are the three dimensions of professionalism that reflective practice strengthens?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Calibre, discourse, and knowledge creation

Calibre is the quality of the craft, refined through reflection. Discourse is the ability to articulate professional beliefs and learn from others through dialogue. Knowledge creation is the ability to think and observe critically, and to frame and challenge theories. The three reinforce each other.