Unit 1: The Teaching Profession PDF

## Fundamentos Teóricos e Históricos de la Educación Primaria (Bilingüe) ### Unit 1 - The teaching profession #### Prof. Dr. Luis del Espino Díaz **Index** - Concept of profession and professional traits - Profile of the teaching profession - Society and the teaching profession - Teacher profes...

## Fundamentos Teóricos e Históricos de la Educación Primaria (Bilingüe) ### Unit 1 - The teaching profession #### Prof. Dr. Luis del Espino Díaz **Index** - Concept of profession and professional traits - Profile of the teaching profession - Society and the teaching profession - Teacher professional development ### 1. Concept of profession and professional traits #### 1. Professional traits 1. Each profession is characterized by a body of systematic, scientifically-based knowledge, as well as by a set of competencies that are applied in its exercise. 2. The professional acts with a notable dose of altruism, at the direct or indirect service of the citizens. 3. The professional works with a certain autonomy in the application of their theoretical knowledge. 4. The professions are organized by professional associations that protect them in defense of the quality criteria established for access to professional practice, the preservation of its quality, the ethical principles that regulate it, and other conditions that surround it. 5. Professionals commit to innovation processes and permanent improvement of their practices: initial and permanent training. 6. There is social support for the profession based on the public's trust in professionals, who are presumed to have a high capacity to perform the activities of their profession. 7. Accountability procedures are applied through which professionals are accountable to employers and, in general, to the public to whom they provide the service directly or indirectly. #### 2. Definition of the teaching profession Australian Council of the Professions: A profession is a disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical standards, and who present themselves and are accepted by the public as possessing special knowledge and skills about a widely recognized body of learning derived from research and research, training at a high level, and that they are prepared to apply this knowledge and put these skills into practice in the interest of others. The existence of an ethical code that guides the activities of the profession is inherent in its definition. [http://www.professions.com.au/about-us/what-is-a-professional](http://www.professions.com.au/about-us/what-is-a-professional) #### 3. Conceptual differentiation - **Occupation**: Any activity or work that represents a person's livelihood, regardless of the degree of specialisation or prestige of the job. - **Trade**: A regular occupation, a generic activity that is not necessarily specialised, but that the person who performs it represents a source of economic income for him/her. Example: waiter - **Profession**: Professions are at a more advanced level or status of development in terms of specialisation of tasks, scientific and technical basis of these tasks, autonomy in their practice, associationism in their practice, associationism, permanent innovation and improvement and, consequently, social recognition and prestige, social recognition and prestige. ### 2. Profile of the teaching profession #### 1. Characteristics of the teaching profession 1. Teachers have specialized knowledge on which they base their daily activities: initial training and an induction phase when they begin their professional practice. 2. Teaching is a helping social profession that includes an altruistic component. The core of the teaching profession includes a deep ethical dimension (Reis Monteiro, 2015). 3. Professionals develop their activity with a certain degree of autonomy within the classroom within the framework of an organizational and curricular plan for the educational center and a broader regulation (local, regional, state) that guides their activity. 4. Their professional interests are defended trade unions in the field of access, promotion, salary regime, and, in general, the rights that affect their professional career. 5. They are formed throughout working life. Likewise, scientific research, in which teachers themselves may be involved, determines new practices aimed at more effective and efficient learning. 6. There is a relative degree of accountability through evaluations of student learning, both regional, national, and international. 7. There is a relative degree of social recognition of the teaching profession. #### 2. Factors of teacher dissatisfaction (Mc Beath, 2019) - The challenges faced and pressure to achieve goals: changes in legislation, the school, families, the school, families. - The feeling of not being in control: when you lose autonomy. - Lack of time: teachers who worry the most do not have the most, but there is a balance to be struck so that the situation does not become a The situation does not lead to anxiety. - Isolation in relation to colleagues: because of not working in a team, because of personality or because of Commitment. - Compulsory or inflexible curriculum: to some extent, they have to be autonomous. - Bureaucracy: filling in a lot of data for any activity without technical help (assistance, excursions) or spending money on research, or spending money on research. - Evaluation: teachers are subjected to continuous evaluation processes. - Overload of political initiatives: there are different ideological systems. - Lack of support from families. - Disruptive or poor behaviour of pupils: pupils who are absent or children who go and don't learn. - Stress: generated by all of the above. The "burnt-out teacher syndrome" is caused by the demands of the years. #### 3. Factors of teacher satisfaction (Mc Beath, 2019) - Autonomy: doing what you think you should because of your knowledge. - Being valued (appreciated). - To be trusted (by both teachers and families). - Being asked about your method by a teacher. - To be listened (as an expert). - Time for learning, teaching and planning. - Collegiality: working together (for example, planning tasks with peers). - Initiative: e.g. planning the term, using methodology, meetings with families. - Creativity: ability to use new resources. - Contact with pupils. - Opportunity for innovating and experimentation: e.g. new methodologies. #### 2. Profile of the teaching profession (Mc Beath, 2019) | **Satisfiers** | **Dissatisfiers** | |:---:|:---:| | - Autonomy | - Challenge | | - Being valued | - Feeling of not being in control | | - Being trusted | - Lack of time | | - Being listened to | - Isolation from colleagues | | - Time for learning, teaching and planning | - Prescribed or inflexible curriculum | | - Collegiality | - Bureaucracy | | - Initiative | - Testing | | - Creativity | - Policy initiative overload | | - Contact with pupils | - Pressure to meet targets | | - Scope for innovation and experimentation | - Lack of parental support | | - Poor student behaviour | | | - Stress | | #### 4. Basic knowledge components of the teaching profession (Reynolds, 1989) - **The scientific component:** teachers must know the subjects they teach. - **The psycho-pedagogical component:** teachers prepare to be professionals who assume theoretical, practical, and technological knowledge of the Educational Sciences. - **The cultural component:** teachers must have a general culture and a specific culture of the environment in which they will practice their profession. - **The practical component:** teachers access the educational reality through practices, and experiment and adapt the curricular bases received to the context in which they will practice the profession. (They represent the fundamental axes of teacher training). #### 5. Key areas that are common to professional-pedagogical knowledge (Toledo-Figueroa and Guerriero, 2017): - Teaching planning - Classroom environment (management of the classroom and the social nature of learning) - Instruction (ability to use different teaching methods and techniques, and to organize teaching) - Student involvement and active learning - Work with heterogeneous classes (flexible teaching) - Learning theories (knowledge about how children learn and develop, and how this knowledge affects teaching) - Learning Assessment - Use of data and involvement in research #### 6. Model based on psycho-pedagogical knowledge consisting of the following sub-dimensions (Voss, Kunter, and Baumert, 2011): - Knowledge about classroom management - Knowledge of teaching methods - Knowledge about classroom evaluation - Knowledge about the learning processes - Knowledge about the characteristics of the students > Both the proposal by Toledo-Figueroa and Guerriero (2017) and that of Voss, Kunter, and Baumert (2011) are referring, in short, to the teaching competencies that are crucial for the daily professional practice of the center and classroom. <start_of_image> Schematic representation of the models of Voss, Kunter and Baumert, 2011 and Toledo-Figueroa and Guerriero, 2017 [Image: A circle divided in two halves with a smaller inner circle with a larger inner circle. The smaller inner circle represents knowledge about classroom management. The larger inner circle represents psycho-pedagogical knowledge. The first half of the outer circle represents the model of Toledo-Figueroa and Guerriero, 2017 indicating the elements of teaching planning, classroom environment, instruction, student involvement, heterogeneous classes, learning theories, learning assessment and involvement in research. The second half of the outer circle represents the model of Voss, Kunter and Baumert, 2011 indicating the elements of classroom characteristics, psycho-pedagogical knowledge, learning processes and classroom evaluation. The models include a common area for learning processes and classroom environment.] ### 3. Society and the teaching profession #### 1. Social demands on education - Educational action is closely linked to the characteristics of the social contexts in which it is carried out. - When this action takes place within the framework of the educational system, the whole of the curriculum and the roles of teachers must connect with social goals and expectations. - Formal education institutions must be at the service of cohesion and social justice (Flecha, 2015). - Principles and purposes of the educational system in Spain refer to values such as equity, freedom, responsibility, democracy, solidarity, respect, justice, non-discrimination, participation, peace and non-violence, cooperation, etc. - Thus stating the type of society that we want to build through education (that is, a democratic, equitable, and just community). #### 2. Social recognition of the teaching profession Subjective perception improves when: - Teachers feel valued within the profession. - Teachers perceive that they have the confidence of school leaders. - Teachers are supported financially in order to continue developing professionally. - Teachers work under conditions and with high-quality resources. - Teachers are involved in investigation processes. - Teachers participate as trainers of other teachers. A consequence of the teacher feeling recognised in his or her profession is that the quality of teaching increases and at the same time the effectiveness of teaching increases. All of this has an impact on the teacher's self-perceived satisfaction. | Factor | Indicator | |:---:|:---:| | Professional and practical capabilities **H1** | Job history and outcomes | | The ability to apply information technologies **H2** | Job specific | | The capabilities as communicator, negotiator, and team-worker **H3** | Job roles and values | | Teaching quality | Teacher job satisfaction **H4** | | Teaching effectiveness **H5** | Number of vocational certificates obtained | | | Placement in competitions | | | Number of projects | | | Students' employment rates | [Huang, S., Huang, Y., Chang, W., Chang, L., & Kao, 2. (2013). Exploring the effects of teacher job satisfaction on teaching effectiveness. International Journal of Modern Education Forum 2(1), pp. 17-30]. MacBeath (2012), in his report on the future of the teaching profession, gives us some clues about the relative detachment of many teachers in relation to the exercise of their profession, which would at least partially explain their perception of loss of prestige: - The intensification of local, national, and global pressures that, acting in a concerted manner, impact on the professional autonomy of teachers, their effectiveness, and self-confidence. - The diversity of roles that schools and teachers assume and that, in other times, were attributed to families or other social agents. - The teacher self-realization is getting lower and lower - The behaviour and lack of discipline of some students can cause dissatisfaction and stress for teachers. - The diversity of children's capacities and needs represents important challenges for teachers. Measures aimed at increasing the social prestige of teachers include: - Increasing the level of requirements for access to teaching qualifications. - Increasing training requirements and access to the profession, as well as promoting professional autonomy and improving salary recognition. There are also social factors in the profession that are favourable and give professionalism: - The specific nature of teaching work - Equality in the level of training between teachers and the liberal professions. - Social attention to the problems of education - The importance of the public sector as opposed to the private sector - High degree of professional identity - Collegiality - Contact with children - The possibility to innovate and experiment #### 3. Socioeconomic factors and the teaching profession One of the most relevant socioeconomic variables is unemployment and average income per unit of consumption (see graphic): [Image: Chart featuring earnings and unemployment rates by educational attainment 2022. It includes a bar chart with a range from 0 to 2,500 with median usual weekly earnings along the Y axis and unemployment rate on the right side of the chart. The Chart shows data grouped by educational attainment from Doctoral degree to less than a high school diploma. The Doctoral degree group has the highest average salary and the lowest unemployment rate. As the educational attainment decreases, the average salary lowers and unemployment rate increases, reaching its highest point in the group “less than a high school diploma.” ] - These conditions the expectations and motivation of young people who are professionally trained. - the value of university degrees: the unemployment rate is much lower among those who achieve a higher education degree than among those who do not have one. - According to the Labor Force Survey (National Institute of Statistics, 2020): compared to an average unemployment rate of 14.10%, the average incidence was 8.60% among those who had a higher education degree. - Why does higher education represent a retaining wall for unemployment? - because it provides a training activity to a significant contingent of the workforce and, - because it increases the probability that graduates will subsequently get a job by providing them with a higher skill level. ### 4. Teacher professional development - The evolution of professional teaching knowledge during working life has received various names: professional development, retraining of teachers, in-service training or improvement, permanent training, etc. (Villar Angulo, 1990). - Also, there is no agreement on the terms used by authors to denote the different structures of rationality adopted in teacher education (Marcelo, 1994): paradigms, conceptual orientations, models, perspectives, training traditions, etc. - The absence of terminological consensus corresponds to the variety of existing conceptions on teacher professional development, as well as to their historical evolution. - With this concern, discussions have been organized at the international level on the responsibility of teachers, professionalization, and teaching competencies in charge of intergovernmental institutions (OECD, UNESCO, World Bank, Council of Europe, European Union) #### 1. The initial training of teachers in Spain Historical moments in the initial training of teachers in Spain. - 1839: Creation of the Normal School or Central Seminary for Teachers in Madrid - 1842: Cordoba teacher training school for men - 1861: Cordoba teacher training school for women - 1970: Process of incorporation of teacher training studies into the first cycle of university studies (three years) - 1999: Bologna Plan (new structure of levels and training cycles). It had three levels (bachelor, master, doctorate). Education degrees become 4 years in duration. - 2006-2007: LOE and regulations on the curricula for the Bachelor's Degree in Primary and Childhood Education (UCO plan published in UCO plan published in January 2011). Order ECI / 3857/2007, of December 27, established the requirements for the verification of official university degrees that enable the exercise of the profession of Teacher in Primary Education and Order ECI / 3854/2007, of December 27 for Teacher in Early Childhood Education: - ordering in it that the study plans have a duration of 240 credits. - Their specific competencies must refer to three blocks of knowledge in which the different subjects are grouped: - basic training, referring to the learning and development of the personality of the students, educational processes and contexts (society, family, and school; didactic and disciplinary block, competences around the teaching and learning of Experimental Sciences, Social Sciences, Mathematics, Languages, Musical, Plastic and Visual Education, and Physical Education; - the Practicum. #### 2. The initial training of teachers in Europe Member States of the European Union should review and strengthen the profile of all teaching professions (European Commission) Initial teacher training includes two components: - A general one (general training and disciplinary domain) - And another pedagogical-didactic professional. Both components, general and professional, are combined in different ways, giving rise to two training models: - The simultaneous one (the two components are taken concurrently). This is the case of the degrees in primary and early childhood education and - The consecutive one (first, the general component is studied and, later, the competences related to the professional component are learned). This is the case for secondary school teachers (first they study the degree and then they study a master's degree for teachers). In general, even with differences between countries, the evolution of teacher training in Europe has been faithful to a process of convergence, sponsored by the creation of the European Higher Education Area, as well as by the common needs imposed by the globalization process. #### 2. The initial training of teachers in Europe Level of education required to become a teacher: - **Early Childhood Education:** fluctuates between countries, ranging from Upper Secondary Education to Master’s Degree, although in most systems a Bachelor’s Degree is required. - **Primary education:** three- or four-year bachelor’s degree is the most common requirement. However, an increasing number of countries require a Master’s level qualification, and a Master’s degree is in demand in a majority of systems with a total of five years of education being required. This is already in the Czech Republic, Slovakia Slovenia, Portugal, France, Finland, Iceland, Germany, Estonia and Croatia, Iceland, Germany, Estonia and Croatia (González González et al., 2021). In addition to the degree, in 13 countries or regions, graduates have to participate in an induction period. #### 3. The stages and models of teacher professional development In professional development, different stages or levels in teacher education can be distinguished teacher training: - **Initial training,** acquired in the Spanish case in the university institution of initial teacher training. - **Training for beginner teachers** is the stage of the first year(s) of the teacher’s professional practice (at the beginning of this stage would be the induction phase which exists in several European countries). - **Continuing professional development** includes all those activities planned by institutions or activities planned by institutions or by teachers themselves to improve their professional competences throughout their lives. In the last two decades of the 20th century, the different orientations present in teacher training were defined quite precisely. This is what Imbernón (1994) did, differentiating four paradigms: - **Presage-Product:** The teacher’s personal qualities (like training or personality) directly impact student learning outcomes. - **Process-Product:** Focuses on the relationship between what happens in the classroom (how the teacher teaches) and the students' learning results. - **Mediational:** The teacher's development is influenced by factors like social context, relationships, and personal reflection, rather than being a direct process. - **Contextual or Ecological:** Teaching is heavily shaped by the environment (culture, community, school policies). You can't understand teaching without considering its broader context. Marcelo (1994) establishes another classification: 1. **Academic orientation:** content control 2. **Technological orientation:** the focus is on the knowledge and skills needed for teaching, deriving these skills from process-product research. 3. The important thing is personal self-discovery and consciousness about oneself. 4. **Practical orientation:** practical experience and the importance of observation. 5. **Social reconstructionist orientation:** puts reflection at the centre. 6. **Competence orientation or competency-based training:** autonomy of the professional in order to permanently generate adaptive knowledge in changing contexts and in the midst of rapid flows of information.