Chapter 8: Professionalism in Teaching: Toward a Structural Theory of Professionalism

The purpose of this inquiry was to establish a conception of professionalism in teaching and a frame of measurement for it, which attends to both individual and organizational dimensions in a manner that is consistent with current scholarship on the professions.

After a careful review of the literature, we identified an emerging perspective on professionalism that is driven by jurisdiction. We applied Abbott’s theory of professionalism (1986) to teaching and schools to frame a new model of teacher professionalism, which identified four specific elements of professionalism, all of which enable educators to gain jurisdiction over education by winning public confidence.

Using structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis, we confirmed the factor structure of teacher professionalism and developed a general overall index of professionalism. Validation for our theory and measure were further demonstrated through social-network analysis and structural equation modeling by showing that our measure of professionalism performed as it should in relationship to other concepts implicated in the theory.