A petition has just been launched by teachers. She calls for the creation of a professional order for Quebec preschool, elementary and secondary teachers.
These are in fact two petitions, since the teachers concerned can sign one and the general public, a second.
This is not the first time that this idea has been put forward in our country, and each time it arouses debate and controversy. For my part, I have always maintained that it is wise, to get an idea, to start by clarifying what we mean by “profession”.
As we know, the word comes from Latin and was used to affirm – to profess, precisely – one’s faith.
Today, in common language at least, we call “professionals” people who practice professions as varied as musician, sportsman, doctor, actor and lawyer, among others, and who thus earn (sometimes very well…) their living .
But I think that that is not enough and that we need to be clearer and more precise about what we mean by the words “profession” and “professional”. I argue, along with much of the literature on the subject, that these words are justified when important conditions are satisfied.
What is a profession
To begin with, a professional has particular, rich, scholarly knowledge if I dare say, knowledge that is acquired over a long period of time. And with time, what he needs to know increases, and this is so true that he will have to constantly update his knowledge and update it. Training for professionals, called continuing training, will allow this.
That’s not all.
Because among professionals, this knowledge is not only contemplative: it is implemented in a complex practice where we take particular gestures, gestures rightly called professional.
Something else. The people who make these gestures are recognized as having great autonomy, even if this is also, in various ways, limited and even monitored. A professional order is precisely one of the tools to do this.
Finally, these professionals work with people who, typically, need their help, people who are sometimes even weak or fragile, and who know little, if at all, of what the professional knows. Their relationship with the professional also concerns something that has great social and human value: for example, health for the doctor, justice for the lawyer, financial information for the professional accountant. Take into account this relationship and its purpose, and all that this implies on an ethical level, and you will understand that these professions have a code of ethics which, precisely, regulates this relationship between the professional and his client.
And the teachers, then? Are they professionals or not?
The current proposal
Have fun doing the exercise: teaching, if we judge by the criteria put forward above, could very well be considered a profession.
In addition, we must give credit to the teachers who are currently pushing this idea of a professional order for being clear and having good arguments.
This order, we are told, and this brings us again to the definition proposed above of a profession, “will be able to ensure the quality of the initial and continuing training of teachers, currently under the aegis of the government and vulnerable to ideological deviations. It will ensure the protection of the public by ensuring transparency regarding the qualifications and criminal and disciplinary records of teachers.”
We also recall that, if the union defends the teacher against the employer, the order wants to help ensure that teachers are up to the standards of the profession, wants to protect the students, the public, to supervise non-legally qualified teachers and ensure that they have adequate training. It goes without saying that the current shortage of teachers and the need to remedy it urgently militate in favor of the creation of this order. Without saying anything about the very welcome valorization of the profession that we hope for.
I therefore understand this request, and I share many of the concerns and ambitions that motivate it. However, I remain hesitant, as I always have been on this question… adding, this time again, that I could change my mind.
My hesitations
I first fear an unnecessary duplication of responsibilities with what universities, schools, the Ministry, the Public Education Act, the INEE, the National Student Protector and the unions.
I also fear the tensions and conflicts that would result from these duplications.
I also think that teachers are already fairly supervised and that they would not be happy with this new monitoring tool.
And finally I think that problems like the shortage we are experiencing should be solved first by those who partly caused them, and not by a new structure.
But who knows? Maybe I’m wrong. And the current petitions could show it, if teachers and the population massively support the project. We’ll see…
In the meantime, and to get an idea on the subject, you can see what the Ontario College of Teachers, which has existed since 1997, is doing.