Competence and performance #13 - Professionalism

In the final part of his series on what distinguishes the very best language teachers, Interchange author Jack C. Richards considers professionalism, and draws some conclusions.

English language teaching is not something that anyone who can speak English can do. It is a profession, which means that English teaching is seen as a career in a field of educational specialization, it requires a specialized knowledge base obtained through both academic study and practical experience, and it is a field of work where membership is based on entry requirements and standards.

The professionalism of English teaching is seen in the growth industry devoted to providing language teachers with professional training and qualifications; in continuous attempts to develop standards for English language teaching and for English language teachers; in the proliferation of professional journals and teacher magazines, conferences, and professional organizations; in requirements for English teachers to demonstrate their level of proficiency in English as a component of certification; in the demand for professional qualifications for native-speaker teachers; and in the greater level of sophisticated knowledge of language teaching required of English teachers. Becoming an English language teacher means becoming part of a worldwide community of professionals with shared goals, values, discourse, and practices but one with a self-critical view of its own practices and a commitment to a transformative approach to its own role.

There are two different dimensions to professionalism (Leung 2009). The first can be called institutionally prescribed professionalism – a managerial approach to professionalism that represents the views of ministries of education, teaching organizations, regulatory bodies, school principals, and so on that specify what teachers are expected to know and what constitutes quality teaching practices. There are likely to be procedures for achieving accountability and processes in place to maintain quality teaching. Such specifications are likely to differ from country to country. This aspect of professionalism involves becoming familiar with the standards the profession sets for membership and a desire to attain those standards. Such standards involve acquiring the qualifications the profession recognizes as evidence of professional competence, as well as demonstrating a commitment to attaining high standards in our work, whether it be as classroom teachers, supervisors, administrators, or teacher trainers.

The second dimension to professionalism is what Leung calls independent professionalism, which refers to teachers’ own views of teaching and the processes by which teachers engage in reflection on their own values, beliefs, and practices. A key to long-term professional development is the ability to be able to reflect consciously and systematically on one’s teaching experiences. Reflection means asking questions like these about one’s teaching:

1. What kind of teacher am I?
2. What am I trying to achieve for myself and for my learners?
3. What are my strengths and limitations as a language teacher?
4. How do my students and colleagues view me?
5. How and why do I teach the way I do?
6. How have I developed as a teacher since I started teaching?
7. What are the gaps in my knowledge?
8. What role do I play in my school, and is my role fulfilling?
9. What is my philosophy of teaching, and how does it influence my teaching?
10. What is my relationship with my colleagues, and how productive is it?
11. How can I mentor less experienced teachers?

There are many ways in which teachers can engage in critical and reflective review of their own practices throughout their teaching career (see Richards and Lockhart 1994; Richards and Farrell 2005), for example, through the analysis of critical incidents, teacher support groups, journal writing, discussion groups, action research, and portfolios. Reflection involves both looking back at teaching experiences as well as looking forward and setting goals for new or changed directions. Dewey (1933) suggested three attributes that can facilitate the processes or reflective thinking: open-mindedness, responsibility, and wholeheartedness. Open-mindedness is a desire to listen to more than one side of an issue and to give attention to alternative views. Responsibility means careful consideration of the consequences to which an action leads. And wholeheartedness implies overcoming fears and uncertainties to allow critical evaluation of one’s practice in order to make meaningful change.

Conclusions

In this series of posts, in trying to describe the nature of competence and performance in language teaching, I have attempted to realize a somewhat ambitious agenda. And any attempt to characterize the nature of quality, expertise, professionalism, or effectiveness in language teaching is liable to the charge of different kinds of bias, since such an attempt is bound to reflect understandings that are shaped by culture, by context, by individual belief and preference, as well as by limitations in our present state of knowledge. These limitations, however, should not prevent us from reflecting on the beliefs and assumptions that shape the way we understand the nature of teacher knowledge and teacher development for language teachers. For when we do so we are in a better position to assess the goals of language teacher education, as well as the means by which we seek to achieve them.

References-and-Further-Reading

Read all the posts in this series: