Royal University of Phnom Penh School & Society

Institute of Foreign Languages Instructor Yi Rosa

Department of English 2018-2019
Summary Note
Group 4: Meng Souheng, Hem Phana, & Lay Hongly
Reading 21: The Status of Teaching as a Profession
Learn the Difference
Profession
a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification
Professional
a person engaged or qualified in a profession
Professionalize
to give (an occupation, activity, or group) professional qualities, typically by increasing training or raising
required qualifications
Professionalism
The attitudinal or psychological attributes of those who are considered to be, or aspire to be considered as,
professionals
Professionalization
The degree to which occupation exhibit the structural or sociological attributes, characteristics, and criteria
identifies with the professional model.
Introduction
● Professionalization has long been a source of both hope and frustration for teachers.
● The question is what it means to be a profession and to professionalize teaching.
A profession and how to professionalize teaching
To some, the essence of a profession are
● Advanced training
● Attitudes individual practitioners hold
● Organizational condition
In response to these views, to professionalize teaching, we need to
● Upgrade teachers’ knowledge and skills through training & professional development
● Instill an ethos of public service & high standards
● Improve teachers’ working condition
Professionalization vs. Professionalism
Royal University of Phnom Penh School & Society
Institute of Foreign Languages Instructor Yi Rosa
Department of English 2018-2019
● The degree to which occupations exhibit the structural or sociological attributes, characteristics, and
criteria identified with the professional model
● The attitudinal or psychological attributes of those who are considered to, or aspire to be considered as,
professionals.
Professional Model
A series of indicators of the traditional characteristics of a profession.
The writers use some of these characteristics in the model to evaluate the professionalization of teaching. These
include:
1. Credential and licensing level
2. Induction and mentoring program for entrants
3. Professional development support, opportunities, and participation
4. Specialization
5. Authority over decision making
6. Compensation levels
7. Prestige and occupation social standing
How Professionalized is Teaching?
Credential
● Professions are often referred to as the knowledge-based occupations because they require highly
complex sets of skills, intellectual functioning, and knowledge that are not easily acquired.
● Entry into professions requires credentials (Licenses) through official sanctioned training and
examination. Ex: Doctors, Dentists, Lawyers, and etc…
● These credentials serve as screening devices protecting the public’s interests by ensuring that the holders
have agreed-upon level of knowledge.
● Licenses for teachers are known as teaching certificates and are issued by states.
There are, of course, proponents & opponents to the restricted entry to teaching by requiring teaching
certificates.
 Proponents
Entry into teaching should be more highly restricted, as in traditional professions. Thus, it will help upgrade the
quality and qualifications of teachers and teaching.
 Opponents
● Entice professionals into midcareer changes to teaching
● Alternative certification programs, whereby college graduates can postpone formal education training
and obtain an emergency teaching certificate. EX: Teach for America
Royal University of Phnom Penh School & Society
Institute of Foreign Languages Instructor Yi Rosa
Department of English 2018-2019

● According to the data (refer to page 204), 91 percent of teachers in public schools hold state-issued
teaching certificates while only 50 percent of those in private schools have certificates.
^*It contrasts with the traditional professions.
● However, this does not mean that private schools are not selective in who they are hiring. They far less
frequently use licensing criteria associated with professions.
Induction
● In addition to initial formal training and preparation, professional work typically requires extensive
training for new practitioners upon entry.
● This is called induction.
● While credentials and examinations in many professions are usually designed to ensure that new entrants
have a minimum or basic level of knowledge and skill, induction programs for practitioners are designed
to augment this basic knowledge and skill. Ex: Internships, apprenticeships, or mentoring programs
● The objective of such programs and practices is to aid new practitioners in adjusting to the environment,
to familiarize them with concrete realities of their jobs, socialize them to professional norms, and to
provide a second opportunity to fill out substandard knowledge
In teaching occupation, the mentoring apprenticeship, and induction experiences have been the subject of much
discussion among reformers.
● Empirical researches have shown that induction has positive effects on new teachers on their retention
and their students’ academic achievement.
Professional Development
● Beyond both pre-employment basic training and induction, professions typically require ongoing
technical development and growth.
● Profession is seen a prolonged and continuous process, so to keep practitioners up to date with the
advancement of their skills.
● Their organizations provides mechanism, such as periodic conferences, publications, and workshops, for
the dissemination of knowledge and skills.
● The data (refer to page 204) indicate that professional development in teaching is consistent across
schools.
● However, they, of course, do not tell us about the quality or length of these professional development
programs and activities.
Specialization
Specialization: the most fundamental attributes of professions.
Professionals: not generalists, amateurs, or dilettantes
But possess expertise over a specific body of knowledge and skill.
Royal University of Phnom Penh School & Society
Institute of Foreign Languages Instructor Yi Rosa
Department of English 2018-2019
First assumption:
Specialization: necessary and good since such traditional professions require a great deal of skill, training, and
expertise.
Second assumption:
Non-professions and semi-skilled or low-skill occupations require far less skill, so specialization is assumed
less necessary.
Although specialization is central to professionalization, there has been little recognition of its importance.
Education reformers: “Teacher specialization (elementary school level) is a step backward for education
because it does not address the needs of the “whole child” and contributes to the alienation of students”
Authority
● Professions are marked by a large degree of self-governance.
● The rationale behind professional authority - to place substantial levels of control into the hands of
experts - those who are the closest to and most knowledgeable of the work.
● Professional authority and control are also exerted directly in workplaces - professionalized employees
often have the authority approaching senior management when it comes to organizational decisions.
● This issue lies in the heart of many reforms including:
- Teacher empowerment
- Site-based management
- School constructing
- Teacher leadership
This issue is also a source of contention.
1. Schools are overly decentralized organizations in which teachers have too much workplace autonomy
and discretion.
2. Schools are overly centralized in which teachers have too little influence over school operations.
We focus on 2 issues controlled by professionals: peer hiring and peer evaluation.
Principals view
- Themselves: powerful actor in reference to decisions concerning teacher evaluation a
- Teachers: the least powerful actors.
- Boards and district staff: far less frequently authority over these decisions.
Compensation
● Professionals: well compensated with relatively high salary and benefit levels through their career span.
● High Levels of compensation: necessary to recruit and retain capable & motivated individuals.
● Average salaries are due to differences in the compensation or experience and educational levels.
Royal University of Phnom Penh School & Society
Institute of Foreign Languages Instructor Yi Rosa
Department of English 2018-2019
● To place teachers’ salaries in perspective, it is useful compare them to the salaries earned in other lines
of work.
● Teachers: “economic proletarians of the professions”
● Different data sources: salaries of new college graduates who have become teacher are considerably
below those of new college graduates who chose many other occupations.
Prestige
● Professions: high-status, high-prestige occupations/ respected and admired.
● Public perceptions of which kinds of occupations are more or less prestigious can be assessed.
Implications
● The data: almost all elementary and secondary schools do show some of the important characteristics of
professional workplaces.
● Almost all schools lack many characteristics associated with professionalization.
● Clearly, at best, teaching continues to be treated as “SEMI-PROFESSION”
● Research and reform: professionalization is highly beneficial to teachers, schools, and students.
- Upgrading teaching occupation → improvements in motivation, job satisfaction and efficacy of teachers
→ improvements in teaching performance → improvement in student learning.
● It is important to distinguish both benefits and costs of professionalization and to specify to whom both
of these apply.
Reading 23

Make Students Part of the Solution, Not the Problem

I. Core Values
1. The City School
The City School (TCS) is a public charter high school serving about 400 students in San Francisco, one of a
network of three schools established in 2002 with the mission of ‘’ transforming the lives of students, especially
those who will be the first in their family to attend college by preparing them for success in college , in careers,
and in life.”

Criticism: The challenges

a. The shortage of time and resources to do work like restoratives justice .

b. A place that relied heavily on punishment and removing to maintain school culture.
c. The disconnect between what TCS wanted and what was actually happening as a result of school
discipline policies and practices (The true values : community , respect,, and justice)
Royal University of Phnom Penh School & Society
Institute of Foreign Languages Instructor Yi Rosa
Department of English 2018-2019
2. The Student Justice Panel
The Student Justice Panel is a restorative justice model of school discipline, the purpose of which is to uphold
the school’s Core Values by working to restore damaged relationships between individuals and the community.
The SJP is based on

- strongly believe in maintaining our core values of discipline , growth, community , justice, and respect;
- Each individual at TCS is responsible for the community as a whole ;
- TCS functions best when students take leadership and are given a strong voice.

II. Scenario of disciplinary issues at school functions school

1. Throwing an Jose has experienced apple
- Joes threw an apply across the lunchroom and slam against the door on the side of the room with
laughers
- enough encounters with authority in school and beyond to know that the first response to getting caught
must be to deny culpability.
- Ms. Johnson, the school principal, got frustrated and punish Jose with 5 days suspension.
2. After throwing an apple
Students’ discussion:
- Members of SJP learn Jose received 5 days suspension for what students considered as innocuous act of
playfulness.
- The SJP has responsibility to raise its voice and respond to the apple incident.
- Students feel in dilemma because the school principal is very supportive for the SJP.
- They write a proposal why they think it is unfair.
- The common dynamic in schools : adults have all the power, and students must be obedient and
respectful
- Teacher’s word is taken as truth, and students’ perspectives won’t matter.
- The City School can bring another community before SJP violate the school core values
- First before reaching the SJP, the teacher can deal with students who are about to explode because of a
perceived unfairness.
3. The Meeting between four SJP representatives and the school principal
- The discussion is not about Jose being punished for his actions but that the punishment does not fit his ‘’
crime’’
- The 5 days suspension won’t accomplish anything except to push him further behind in his schoolwork
Royal University of Phnom Penh School & Society
Institute of Foreign Languages Instructor Yi Rosa
Department of English 2018-2019
and make him even angrier about coming to school.
- The SJP group decideds to ask Ms. Johnson to allow Jose to return to school the next day , having
served one day of his suspension on 3 conditions
1. Write an apology letter to a cleaner ;
2. Stays after lunch to clean up the cafeteria for a week;
3. Write a reflection about which core values he violated and what it means to be responsible for
his actions at school
- For the case that Jose did not follow the restorative consequences , the SJP needs to convince him for
his benefits and for the sake of the SJP process to ensure accountabili