This paper considers four notions of teacher professionalism-traditional, managerial, collaborative and democratic professionalism. While its focus is on England, the increasing convergence of education policy around the world means that its discussion and arguments have much wider relevance. The paper begins by outlining the different sociological approaches to defining professionalism , but highlights how, in practice, in most countries the characteristics of a profession are now determined to a large extent by the state. It goes on to document the policy developments that have challenged the traditional professionalism in place in England from the 1950s until the mid-1970s to establish a new managerial professionalism. These developments are linked to the 'New Right' concern from the 1980s to reform the public sector through marketisation and increased surveillance by the state, but the paper also notes the need to acknowledge separate from this the failure of teachers to deliver what society required of them under traditional professionalism. Rather than seek a return to these ways of working, the paper suggests that teachers should take the opportunities opened up by the Conservative and New Labour reforms of the last two decades to move towards a collaborative professionalism. Such professionalism would entail closer working between teachers and other members of the school workforce, such as teaching assistants, as well as professionals from other services concerned with children and young people. The paper concludes, however, that the education community should not be content with collaborative professionalism, but seek to move towards a democratic professionalism, which would entail working not only with other professional groups, but other stakeholders as well-including business, parents and pupils. This means being sensitive to a wide range of stakeholders, some of whose voices have traditionally been silent in education decision making .
CITATION STYLE
WHITTY, G., & WISBY, E. (2006). “Collaborative” and “Democratic” Professionalisms : Alternatives to “Traditional” and “Managerialist” Approaches to Teacher Autonomy? Educational Studies in Japan, 1(0), 25–36. https://doi.org/10.7571/esjkyoiku.1.25
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