Melissa Harness

Pretending Teaching is a Profession: Why Public School Teaching Will Never Be Considered a True Profession Melissa Harness

My endeavor is to discuss why teaching is not, and has never been considered, part of the true professions. Although much rhetoric is aimed at classifying teachers as true professionals and the teaching field as a true profession, the historical, sociological, and societal means that govern the ideological foundation of a true profession are lacking in the field of education, specifically in public schools. By using a historical, sociological, philosophical, and linguistic analysis of the words ?true profession?, along with ?unions?, private teaching organizations, I am able to demonstrate not only why teaching is not a profession, but that teaching will never be a profession, even when the discourse of teachers insist that teachers are ?professional?. Teachers and the teaching field will continue to be classified as anything other than true professionals unless the education system as we currently know is replaced with a completely different way of viewing the job that teachers do. Therefore, I attempt to create a new classification for the field of teaching besides that of a ?profession.?