ABSTRACT
Teaching is both an activity and a status; the term 'teaching' may refer to what teachers actually do at work within educational institutions but may also refer to their membership of an occupational group. This chapter begins by a consideration of some of the implications of labelling the occupation of teaching a 'profession'; and explores the process of becoming a teacher, the process of professional socialization, including an assessment of 'what teaching does to teachers'. It examines the activity of teaching within classrooms, sometimes referred to as the 'role of the teacher', and the related processes of labelling and identity formation within schools. In popular discussion, teaching is often referred to as a profession; but then so is medicine, estate agency and some football playing. An ideal-type profession is constructed based on what is generally considered to be an established profession and other occupations are then judged by their similarity to the ideal type.
