Reorienting Our Thinking Away From “Professional Development for Educators” and Toward the “Development of Professional Educators”

In this article, we look in general at the nature of a profession, how the teaching profession has become deprofessionalized, and various ways in which teachers perceive their profession. We continue by examining ways that teachers can regain a sense of professionalism—through the application of action research and other forms of teacher inquiry—as well as how these activities and initiatives can help teachers to build capacity, regain their lost autonomy, and lend voice to their professional work, especially in light of the recent and current COVID-19 pandemic. Next, we present support for these ideas, offered by highly-experienced teachers in the field. We close with a summary discussion of the approach we are advocating—including considerations for school leaders in the support of teacher inquiry—as well as a discussion of future directions for the larger picture issue of teacher professionalism.