Who Becomes a Teacher?

In Nancy Flanagan's latest post, she argues that Dan Willingham's debunking of learning styles and other educational theories is not as practically significant as it may seem, arguing that

The greatest pedagogical mistake is not, as Willingham asserts, trying to teach all students and subjects in their preferred modality—nobody does that anyway. The biggest misconception is assuming that other people learn the way you do, or valuing your particular strengths and preferences over your students’.

And she reminded me of a question that I've been wondering about for a long time: do teachers have different learning preferences, on average, than students?

In other words, do teachers (including professors) have different views on what constitutes successful teaching than the average student? Only about a quarter of our students go on to complete a 4-year college degree, but all teachers must have at least that. Similarly, only about 5% of undergrads go on to earn a PhD -- something that almost all professors have at most institutions. In other words, teachers are not a representative sample of the population.

And it makes me wonder if teachers have different experiences in and impressions of school while they're students than does the average student. More specifically, since teachers had more success in school than the average student I wonder if people who become teachers are the ones who found school more enjoyable and the pedagogy more interesting.

During my undergrad years I served on a committee to revise the course evaluations that are given at the end of each semester. I pushed for the surveys to include more questions about how engaging the teaching and assignments of the professor were, while many of the faculty on the committee pushed to ask more questions about how much time and effort students had put into the course. I resented the implication that if students weren't getting what they wanted out of a class that it was their fault. And then I started teaching. Students complained that classes and assignments were boring, and I was shocked at student behavior and blamed them for not working hard enough (as did, I think I think it's fair to say, most teachers at the school).

Part of the reason for my reaction (and that of the faculty and other teachers) is simple defensiveness -- if the problem with a class is that it's not engaging enough or that the right assignments aren't given, then it becomes the fault of the teacher. But I think the larger reason is a lack of understanding. I'd leave class and incredulous and saying something to the effect of "when I was in 6th grade, I listened to the teacher and did my homework; why can't they?" And I've heard people on the college level say or imply that they sat down and read the hundreds of pages of poorly-written, dry academic literature each week and they don't understand why a student wouldn't be able to do that.

In short, I wonder if teachers and professors are the ones for whom our current system of education worked. They're the ones who not only succeeded in school, but went on to voluntarily attend more. And I wonder if that means that teachers have difficulty understanding those who struggle or would rather learn a different way (generally speaking, of course).

Even More on Teachers and Professionalism

When I posted a quick thought on teachers as professionals a few days ago I was planning on moving on to something else the next day. Then the comments started pouring (ok, trickling) in, and I decided to post a follow-up comment. But the comments kept coming. And now Marc Dean Millot has responded in his blog rather than adding to the pile of comments. I feel compelled to respond to his response and the other comments I've received.

Truthfully, the title "Are Teachers Professionals?" was a rather flippant and overly-general question for the top of a post in which I actually asked whether any workers in any prestigious field receive as many directives from above as teachers. I still haven't answered that question, but I'm leaning toward "no" right now.

Since I threw out the question initially, I might as well take a stab at answering it. Are teachers professionals? I don't know. On the one hand, they work in a "profession" that requires a fairly high level of training but, on the other, I don't think they're really treated like professionals by their superiors (for now I will skip the questions of why teachers are treated as they are or whether teachers act like professionals).

First, I'm not sure that there's really an accepted definition of "profession" or that, to some extent, any label matters all that much. Millot defines professionals as those who "owe a special duty of care" to their clients (by law), have the autonomy to provide it, and regulate their field. So, I agree, by his definition teachers wouldn't be professionals. But I'm not really sure that any of those three items define what it means to be a professional. Those seem like things that professionals often do rather than things that make one a professional. If we go with the dictionary definitions, professionals are simply people who have the specialized knowledge necessary to work in a field.

Furthermore, I'm not convinced that these are necessarily possible or feasible for teachers. How would one judge whether a teacher is meeting their professional obligations to students? An engineer fails if a bridge collapses. A doctor fails if they prescribe the wrong drugs or operate on the wrong foot. An accountant fails if they take an illegal deduction. When does a teacher fail? When a child fails to learn? What if the child refuses to try? Is the teacher negligent in that case? I'm not saying it's impossible to define, but it's a heck of a lot tougher than in other fields. Furthermore, I don't hear anybody arguing that professors aren't professionals and I don't see them carrying malpractice insurance or being sued for negligence. Should teachers leave the field if they neglect their job responsibilities? Yes. Would codifying their job responsibilities make them more professional? I remain unconvinced.

I'll offer less disagreement on the points about autonomy and self-policing. Unless somebody can convince me otherwise, I'd have to say that teachers do not have the autonomy of people in more prestigious fields. I'm not sure autonomy makes somebody a professional, but it's certainly a sign that somebody is one (e.g. "professional latitude"). And I'd say the same thing about policing the field. Obviously teachers don't bear much responsibility for determining who is allowed to enter and forced to leave their field. I'm not sure that this makes them unprofessional, but the "professions" do tend to police their fields (faculty are mostly in charge of hiring and tenure decisions, for example).

I'll also largely agree that there is a trade-off between accountability and autonomy. But it's not absolute (again, other than tenure, how accountable are professors for what they do?), and I'm not convinced that teachers are as unaccountable as one might think. It doesn't make the news when a lawyer posts risque photos online, but you'll hear about it if a teacher does. You won't hear about it if a doctor curses out a patient, but you will if a teacher curses out a student. You won't hear about it if a lawyer tells their client to pray with them, but you will if a teacher tells their class to pray with them. Despite the fact that teachers aren't treated like professionals in a lot of ways, they sure seem to be held to higher standards of conduct than maybe any other profession or field in this country.

More on Teachers and Professionalism

Thought Experiment:

Envision the perfect school in your head.

What are the teachers like? How do they behave? What responsibilities do they have? How are they treated? Are teachers professionals in this school?

In my last post I asked whether any professionals in high-prestige jobs were subjected to as many directives and interference as are teachers. I still don't have an answer (surprise, not every question can be answered in 24 hours). But I do have more questions (courtesy of commenters).

Whether teachers are treated like people in other professions is, at best, half the story. You'd also need to know why they're treated the way they are and if they behave like people in other professions before you could make firm conclusion about the state of teaching. Of course, short blog posts will never answer complicated questions. So rather than trying to answer all those, I still seek the answer to this one: what is the most prestigious job where people are treated similarly to teachers?

Are Teachers Professionals?

I've heard a lot of talk about teachers as professionals, or at least the desire for teachers to be professionals. I'm not sure many people would disagree that, in an ideal system, teachers would be at least close to on-par with doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.

Teachers are compared to people who work in these professions, as well as nurses, accountants, social workers, etc. somewhat frequently in research -- sometimes this is appropriate and sometimes it's not.

Regardless, here's my question of the day:

What is the most prestigious job in which people are subjected to as many directives from above as teachers?

I'm not sure what the answer is. I'm honestly not sure how much lawyers or accountants have bosses breathing down their necks (and I'm sure it varies widely), so I hesitate to even hazard a guess. It certainly varies widely in teaching, as some teachers shut their door and do their own thing while others have principals and superintendents constantly ordering them around. Ultimately, teachers are supposed to follow the directives of their supervisors (after all, they can be cited for insubordination). The curriculum they must teach might be determined by central office folk (in NYC a few years back seating and bulletin board arrangements were suggested by them as well). They are usually evaluated by supervisors on at least a yearly basis. They're limited as to how they can deal with disruptive students by school and district policy. I could go on, but I won't.

Are teachers treated less like professionals than people in equally or more prestigious jobs? Do people in other jobs have more autonomy or professional latitude than teachers? Does this matter?