Teaching profession: Dynamic, evolving
Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday May 12, 2025 14:21
It must and should be a growing, very dynamic and ever evolving profession seeking to adapt to accommodate the growing societal demands in general and in particular the world of students.
The teaching and learning needs of the 20th century learner demanded professional tools and pedagogical experiences totally different from the set of tools and approaches relevant to the needs of the 21st century learner.
Effectively, this means teaching and learning methodologies, which students served well and delivered desirable student learning outcomes in the old order can no longer hold and withstand the much more rigorous education landscape of the new 21st century world order.
Change therefore cannot be an option but a life and death necessity, which educators should be pursuing with a sense of urgency and vigour. As the students portfolio needs continue to grow and diversify, the teaching profession should also rise to the challenge not only through re-sharpening its existing tool box but should also take deliberate and calculated efforts aimed at carving and fashioning new set of tools fit for purpose.
This means a continuing culture of professional development and change should define the character of a responsive student-centred teaching profession. There are so many varied and diversified responsibilities that the modern day teachers are required to do, which their predecessors were not required to perform. Teachers have become everything in the education system. Multi tasking has become a standard practice. As the work of a teacher changes and the teaching profession itself assumes new complex dimensions and responsibilities, there should also be corresponding evolution and mutation of its professional language to reflect the changing circumstances. A language in general is a working tool and so is the teaching language. An appropriate language should be developed to reflect the terrain and contours that characterise the teaching profession.
Tools are not named in vacuum. They derive their names from the very purpose for which they were designed to perform. For example, a hammer tool derives its name from its ability to crush stones, forge metals into a shape desired by the maker or hit nails into a wood. Each time there is some new work coming into the picture, a corresponding demand for new fit for purpose tools should be met. It would appear the language of teaching in our jurisdiction has remained stagnant for far too long and therefore falling short of satisfying the changing times.
I have observed with keen interest that educational institutes of international repute such as the Harvard Graduate School of Education continue to revolutionise the teaching professional language to be in tandem with the moving times. This is a great step in the right direction that would enhance a deeper appreciation of not only complexity of the work teachers perform but also the versatility of the teaching profession. Lumping together every teacher under the same label without recognising their diversified roles is an understatement not reflecting the actual value and unique specialties the practitioners execute on a daily basis.
Some of the new and inspiring professional teaching language developments one has picked from the Harvard Graduate School of Education include sophisticated stuff like instructional team, teacher-leader, instruction coach, mentors, professional learning community, among other things. The language reflects modern trends that should be adopted if the teaching service is to overcome a culture of academic underachievement and make the students the epicentre of all efforts that the school system is embarking upon.
If the principal focus of a school system is classroom instruction then it makes sense for all school principals to embark on pre-service or in-service mandatory instructional leadership course. This would make them become instructional leaders par excellence, leading from the front and not from behind. Schools fail students when leaders in charge do not necessarily provide the necessary leadership in the most critical area of teaching and learning. Good leadership in other facets of a school is much appreciated and desired but leadership in the classroom is a life and death element, which no school should lack.
Every school should have an instructional team. Every class room has an instructional leader who should not be operating in isolation but must necessarily have connections with the bigger school picture. The existence of an instructional team is anchored on the spirit of collaboration, collegiality and camaraderie in a school system. No classroom practitioner, however, grounded on pedagogy and classroom management one may be, should have the luxury of electing to be an ivory tower existing in isolation from the rest of the team.
Professionals thrive on collaboration and a continuing culture of subjecting their work to peer review. Working in silos breeds unhealthy competition and complacency as much as it is a waste of scarce resources. Each school should have an instructional team. This is a must and not an elective. The instructional team comprises all classroom practitioners working under the guidance of immediate senior academic leaders and school principals. The purpose of an instructional team is to facilitate professional exchanges of notes on matters of practice, identify gaps and develop mitigation measures.
In the instructional team mix there would also be instructional leaders towering above the rest of the crew who should be duly recognised as instructional coaches. Instructional coaches are carefully selected subject specialists who have proven their teaching and pedagogic prowess in their various capacities. The primary duties of instructional coaches facilitate setting the standard of instruction, defining of the tone of instruction and making it clear to all practitioners what good and effective instruction should look like. It is also the role of instructional coaches and mentors to disseminate best teaching practices while ensuring execution of the protocols associated with the collectively agreed instructional regimen though regular class room visits and inspections. Positional power and length of service should not be used as criteria for selecting instructional coaches and mentors. Sometimes the most experienced can become the least productive. This means even a novice or an ordinary educator without a portfolio who has proven his or her teaching prowess can qualify to become an instructional coach.
Once the right culture has been established in a school, it is vitally important to jealously guard and preserve the culture. Retention of staff is one potent way of preserving an effective school culture. When their aspirations for promotion and recognition are not fulfilled, teaching can be a frustrating and demoralising experience. Promotions should be made on merit, recognising noteworthy contributions that both young and veteran teachers are making to uphold the reputation of the profession and advance the interests of students. Promotions skewed in favour of length of service to the detriment of new and hard working educators are also not inspiring. Where it has become apparent that meritocracy is sidelined and respected then it would be difficult to retain teachers who are giving their best selves to the profession. When not happy, good teachers can elect to leave the schools they have been serving well in the quest of better prospects in other schools or outside the profession. High attrition places the culture of a high performing school culture in jeopardy. Movement of staff across schools should be monitored carefully to avoid the risk of compromising performance.