Professionalism, authenticity and action research

Abstract

This article begins by observing the important role that ‘the mantle of professionalism’ has played both in motivating teachers and sustaining the confidence of parents, and a wider public in their work. It goes on to point out six sets of developments in government policy over the last 20 years that have deeply eroded that professionalism, and with it the framework of autonomy and authenticity within which teachers can work. It argues that the import of this loss is not just a matter of the politics of who controls what in education. It has bearing on the very integrity with which a teacher can engage with a pupil and on the very authenticity of that relationship. Educational action research represents at least a modest antidote to the poisoning of these relationships, but to be effective it needs to be joined with practices and intellectual resources, which raise wider questions about the assumptions that are framing our practices, and about the structures of power and influence that control access to information, and undermine authoritative sources of dissent. © 2001, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.