Mother of All Professions

Module 2 ejournal: Teacher Professionalism

Gives Birth

Think of a profession that is not taught by a teacher. There is none. Along the generations, teachers give birth to a new breed of workforce and professionals such as physicians, lawyers, nurses, engineers, accountants and police officers. They nurture these future professionals with the necessary knowledge, hone their skills and shape their attitude. They endure the “pain of contractions” --- pressure, low salary compared to heavy work and mental load, and regarded with high respect but still questioned if they can be called as “PROFESSIONALS.”

Beneficence

As a nurse, we deal with life of people. We are bounded to uphold beneficence to all of our patients. We need to do good for our patients at all times. Hence, we are required to take a board exam before we could handle lives. Even after passing the board, we need to take trainings, seminars and workshops to upgrade our knowledge and skills. That's my understanding of the term "professional".

Teachers are the same. They handle numerous human beings from different walks of life. If teaching is not with expertise and not regulated, a life can be mishandled. And it can't be undone.

Based only on RA 7836, teachers are professionals technically speaking except for one.

Service

Teachers provide an important public service by helping the government produce productive citizens of the Philippines.

Expertise

Teachers involve a theoretically and practically grounded expertise by gaining intensive four-year education, training, license and capacity building activities.

Ethics

Teachers are guided by their code of conduct where they're being reminded to be mindful of their actions in and outside of their educational institution.

Regulation

Teachers have strong bodies that protect their interests and regulates for the purposes of recruitment as shown on teacher development map.

Autonomy

"Professional practitioners require a high degree of individual autonomy- independence of judgment- for effective practice," as stated by David C.

However, teachers just like nurses are monitored and evaluated by their administrators/supervisors if their performance meets the standards. Their individual autonomy is often under organizational --- school or hospital --- control.

Without autonomy, teachers are quasi-professionals?

All of the criteria to be considered teaching as a profession are met except for one, and now a debate is long overdue because of just one criterion. Are there benefits if your occupation is tagged as a FULL PROFESSION? As far as I know, as a licensed nurse, there are none except for respect and pride. In fact, we are REQUIRED by a law to take certain number of units before we can renew our license. That costs much to us. The fun fact is it the elected officials who created and passed this law are not mandated to do the same.

Give more than EK

For me, it's already time to revisit the definition of autonomy so that confusion and question can be answered already. Perhaps, aside of providing free tickets to Enchanted Kingdom every Teacher's Day, why not create a law or the like that will mandate provision of better health and life benefits for teachers? Insurance policies are good compensation or lifting up administrative tasks from their shoulders so they can focus on teaching alone.

Teachers are like moms. They give their whole lives already but still questioned of worthiness.

Second Mom

Let's not forget that teaching is not just a profession, but a vocation and mission as well. If you are being questioned, focus on other aspects. Being a teacher is beyond imparting your knowledge and the title of as a profession. You have a chance to change someone's life. That's where I want to focus my career as a teacher someday. The least I can do is to be my student's second mother who nurtures them when their family and home can't.

Unfortunately, I don't have a plan to risk my health and family time to fight directly for injustices. But what I can do is to choose better leaders every election, with high hopes that he or she will win and appoint a qualified Secretary of Department of Education.

Catrina E. Coralde, RN, MPH

Page updated

Report abuse