What makes a profession has been long debated. One of the best reviews of literature on professions and professionals was published more than 60 years ago by educational technology pioneer Jim Finn. In his classic article, Finn (1953) identified six criteria of a profession, the fifth of which is “A series of standards and a statement of ethics which is enforced” (p. 7). At that time, Finn concluded that education in general and what was then called the “audiovisual field,” specifically, were crafts that fell far short of being able to be called professions.
Finn emphasized that standards are important in the maturation of a craft into a profession, but the enforcement of those standards is what he considered to be a “hallmark of success” for any emerging profession.
In April 2015, the Miami Herald, by almost any measure a world-class newspaper, ran a series of investigative reports titled “Higher Ed Hustle.” This in-depth series concentrated on for-profit institutions of higher education and detailed a series of abuses practiced by a large number of these “educational organizations.” Of course, this is what major newspapers do; they identify pressing problems, investigate them, and report their findings. The conclusion of this series was that many—very many—for-profit higher education institutions were emphasizing profits over professionalism, and the worst violators, according to the Herald offered most if not all of their instruction at a distance. As a matter of fact, the phrases “forprofit” and “online learning” seemed to be used interchangeably—and our field was damaged.
This column is not to reiterate the welldocumented claims of the Miami Herald, nor to review the abuses uncovered. Rather, this column is to “wonder why” our professional organizations do not more actively promote and more rigorously enforce the standards of quality needed to make our field—distance education—more professional. When one of the largest for-profit institutions of higher education is forced to close the doors on its dozens of campuses, should there not be a cry from within to stop the abuses, to cease the false claims, and to identify the unethical actions? Or, if the accusations are in error, should not those from within the field come to the aid of those accused? Certainly, there is no correlation between “profit” and quality: Apple is an example here. Just as certainly there is a negative correlation between unethical actions and professionalism.
The field of distance education has a long, hard, and problematic road to travel before being recognized as a profession. Certainly, the readers of this journal have the motivation to continue on this journey—one important step of which is to identify those who are unethical and to act on that recognition—possibly by contacting the appropriate professional organization such as the United States Distance Learning Association or the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and requesting an investigation.
And finally, as Finn summarized, there is “an obligation on the part of each professional to the ethics and standards of the profession.”
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