190016 SE Professionalisation and Professionalism in Pedagogical Professions (2024S)

There have been noteworthy changes in the policy and societal context of teaching as an occupation within the last 50 years. Neoliberalism as a dominant world ideology, its new managerial practices, and the recent technological stances of the 21st century have been tremendously impacting teaching. All these factors create rich havoc for debating revolving around teaching as a 'profession', 'semi-profession', or 'de-professionalized' and/or 're-professionalized' as well as concepts such as 'teachers’ identity' 'teacher empowerment' and 'commercialized professionalism'. Dealing with these concepts in the subject area, this course focuses on the profession of teaching and scrutinizes the current scholarly debates on the definitions and theoretical constructions of teacher professionalism. Therefore including the evolution of the occupation within the 20th century; different perspectives on professionalism, debates on the criteria of professionalism, and the characteristics of a professional teacher in relation to the status and prestige of teaching as a profession will be elaborated from different perspectives.

Methods: Lectures (introduction of the theories and concepts by the course director), discussions, reflection pieces, group work assignments, presentations, and regular feedback on readings.