ABSTRACT
This chapter considers professionalism as a problematic and contested concept and illustrates the ways in which understanding of ‘a professional teacher’ has changed according to social and political influences. Beginning with an overview of the role and status of professions within modern societies, teaching is acknowledged as a quasi-profession. The changing nature of teacher professionalism is outlined by taking the example of how social, historical and political influences have impacted on teacher professionalism in England. Contemporary understandings of professionalism are tied into notions of effectiveness and what constitutes advanced professional practice. Five contemporary and concurrent discourses of advanced professional practice are identified, and these are used to inform a view of professionalism that acknowledges the paradigm of the improvising teacher.
