in genuinely public schools and the bulk of what is discussed in this book is
concerned with that provision.
As Kohl indicates above, the occupation of teaching is a complex and contested
one, perhaps more now in the twenty-first century than ever before. In the early days
of public schooling, the role of the teacher, often referred to as the schoolmaster or
schoolmistress, was more straightforward. It was to provide a grounding in the basic
skills of literacy and numeracy, provide some knowledge of the world (nature,
science), some practical skills (handicrafts) and a strong sense of morality—often
based in a particular religion. While elements of all of these responsibilities continue
to exist in the work of the teacher, the subsequent development of several phases of
schooling (from‘early years’through to tertiary provision) and the augmentation of
the curriculum by a range of new subjects, some of which are quite specialised,
has led to much greater specialisation and greater complexity in the roles and
responsibilities of the public school teacher.
The Professionalisation of Teaching
Given this increasing complexity and diversity in the nature of teaching over the
past century it is only to be expected that the ways in which teachers are prepared
for their work have also developed over the same period. But this history has been
far from straightforward. There have been very vociferous arguments over the years
about the nature of teaching—as implied by Kohl, above. Is it an art, a craft, a
science or even a‘calling’? Or what combination of these? Is the work of teachers a
profession akin to medical or legal practice or is it perhaps a‘semi-profession’,
perhaps more aligned to social work or nursing? What are the moral or ethical
responsibilities and obligations of teachers to their students and/or to the students’
parents/carers? What is it that teachers need to know and be able to do? Should it be
a requirement that teachers have a distinctive qualification before they are permitted
to teach in the state sector?
It is questions such as these that have been debated and answered in many
different ways over the past decades, with notable struggles between different
interest groups, notably including teachers themselves, teacher educators, parents,
politicians and sometimes the young people—the learners.
Early in the twentieth century during a period of trade unionisation of teachers,
we saw both in England and elsewhere, struggles over the payment, terms and
conditions of teachers, running in parallel to debates about the nature of the school
curriculum. Over the twentieth century as a whole it can be argued that teaching
was increasingly professionalised, in spite of the pressures from what Ozga and
Lawn (1981) have called‘proletarianisation’.
In the late twentieth century, as global politics took an increasingly significant
role in education policy and the significance of‘the knowledge economy’was
identified, we have seen the increasing direct intervention of politicians into the
previous professional arena of education—including the school curriculum—
18 Part I: Becoming a Teacher: Teacher Education and Professionalism