What is a Professional

I have a supervisor’s certificate from the state of New Jersey. To get it I needed to take my fair share of Ed Leadership classes. A surprising number of those classes focused around the question of just how do we get those darn teachers to learn. It’s a surprising question, teacher are some of the most well educated people you are likely to meet. Most hold masters degrees, and they by nature spend a whole lot of time thinking about how to make people learn. Common sense would tell you that they are probably pretty good learners themselves. Think of all the metacognative skills they must have acquired. Yet no amount of formal education can ensure that knowledge transfers to practice (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). While formal education and training is an important piece of the puzzle, it is not an adequate replacement for a professional community of learning. Such communities encourage a culture exploration and self-reflection, and provide opportunities to share information and get support from the larger network of professionals (Darling-Hammond, 1997).
The culture of teaching has not changed much in the last one hundred or so years. Teachers still by and large work alone, and teaching is only marginally a profession (Darling-Hammond, 1997). Teachers rarely share strategies and lessons beyond their hallways. The other day I began ruminating how the field of teaching lacked leadership and community. Can you name the most influential math teacher in the country? Do you know the address of the most visited education Blog on the web? If you were a researcher in the field of Math education you may be able to name some of the big shots in your field. You probably could name a number of quality websites and publications, yet I would wager that your average math teacher could not. Think of how remarkably unique to teaching that is. If a doctor in West Virginia discovered a particularly effective dosing regimen for antidepressants, how long do you think it would be before the word spread? If an English teacher in Appalachia had a particularly effective method for teaching the cogitation of verbs, how long would it take before it was widely known? Would it even reach the other teachers in her district, her school?
This lack of community and leadership is stifling independent teacher learning. One part of this issue is cultural. As we already touched on teachers are expected to self-sufficient and already know what they need to successfully lead a classroom the moment they step to the front of one. The second is an issue of commonality. When a doctor diagnosis you with a strep throat the criteria she/he uses to make that diagnosis is standardized. A strep throat infection is the same in Mississippi as it is in California. In education third grade math is not the same in California as it is in Mississippi. There are no uniformly adopted national standards of education.
If teaching is to become a true profession, it will need the support of government and the community. However, most importantly it will need a leader to champion these changes, otherwise we will continue to get by on our islands.

Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn : brain, mind, experience, and school. (Expanded ed.). Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). The right to learn : a blueprint for creating schools that work (1st ed ed. Vol. Jossey-Bass education series). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.