The Teachers and Professionalism; the Failure of an Occupational Strategy

In this paper it will be argued that the occupations generally called the ‘teaching profession’ have been deeply influenced by a conception of occupational ideology and organisation which we shall call ‘professionalism’. Equally, we shall argue that the teachers’ registration movement represents an occupational strategy of teachers which was aimed at creating a unified and self-governing profession. This paper is designed to demonstrate the reasons why this occupational strategy may be said to have failed. We shall define professionalism shortly for our sociological purpose. We should first point out that professional ideology as such has been associated with the rise of the English middle class. Unlike some ideologies, such as that articulated by the liberal economists of the Manchester School which is also associated with the rise of that class, it has not been so thoroughly analysed and reconstructed into systematic academic and political forms. On the contrary, the professional ideology has been relatively neglected as a subject of academic study, at least until recently, ¹ although it has had its apologists. ²