Theoretical perspectives on professionalism, professionality and professional development

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Theoretical perspectives on professionalism,
professionality and professional development

• invited seminar paper presented at Monash
  University Faculty of Education
• 11th July 2008
• Dr Linda Evans
• School of Education, University of Leeds, UK

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My current quest

• The professional development process
• defining and delineating the process
• formulating a theoretical model
• the job fulfilment process in individuals
• the process whereby individuals attain high
  morale
• a theoretical model of the process whereby
  individuals develop professionally

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What is a theory?

• Debate about theory is rarely accompanied by
  any discussion about its meaning. Any superficial
  examination (or, indeed, detailed examination) of
  educational literature discloses little consensus
  about the meaning of theoryThere is no bond
  between theory and the constellation of meanings
  it has acquired. The reader or listener, when
  encountering the word, is forced to guess what is
  signified by the word through the context in
  which it is applied.
• (Thomas, G. (1997) Whats the Use of Theory ?,
  Harvard Educational Review, 67 (1), 75-104)

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What is theory?

• It is rarely clear what people are against when
  they dismiss theory. It is important to
  distinguish between theory, in the sense of the
  assumptions which lie behind practice but which
  often go unacknowledged, and theory, in the sense
  of tightly organised systems of explanation.
• (Pring, R. (2000) Philosophy of Educational
  Research, London, Continuum)

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What is theory?

• LeCompte and Preissle (p. 118)
• Theories are statements about how things are
  connected. Their purpose is to explain why things
  happen as they do
• Many researchers eschew contact with theory
  altogether they treat the process of developing
  a theoretical framework as little more than the
  collection of a few corroborative empirical
  studies into what could pass for a literature
  review and proceed directly to collect data. They
  leave a concern for theory to great men, but
  they do so at the peril of poor work.
• (LeCompte, M. D. and Preissle, J. (1993)
  Ethnography and Qualitative Design in Educational
  Research, San Diego, CA., Academic Press)

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What is theory?

• Karr and Larson (2005)
• use the terms theory and model interchangeably
• define theory as a general principle formulated
  to explain a group of related phenomena
• define model as a description of the assumed
  structure of a set of observations.
• (Karr, C and Larson, L (2005) Use of
  theory-driven research in counseling
  investigating three counseling psychology
  journals from 1990-1999 The Counseling
  Psychologist, 33, pp. 299-326)

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What do I mean by theory?

• universallyapplicable explanation of why/how
  things occur
• I realise that the word theory is used widely
  and loosely, and cannot hope to change that. I
  wish to distinguish the useful theory work from
  mere persiflage or worse.
• (Gorard, 2004)

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Key components in the process of developing theory

• in-depth analysis of findings
• comparative analysis
• seeking generalisability
• seeking exceptions
• conceptual clarity and definitional precision

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The professional development process in
individuals

• Professional development is the process whereby
  peoples professionalism and/or professionality
  may be considered to be enhanced.
• What do we mean by professionalism?
• What do we mean by professionality?

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Professionality and professionalism

• Eric Hoyle
• professionalism - status-related
• the institutional component of professionalisation
  
• professionality - knowledge, skills procedures
  used in ones work
• the service component of professionalisation
• extended-restricted professionality continuum

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Professionality orientation teachers
Eric Hoyle, 1975

• Restricted professionality
• Skills derived from experience
• Perspective limited to the immediate in time and
  place
• Introspective with regard to methods
• Value placed on autonomy
• Infrequent reading of professional literature
• Teaching seen as an intuitive activity

• Extended professionality
• Skills derived from a mediation between
  experience theory
• Perspective embracing the broader social context
  of education
• Methods compared with those of colleagues and
  reports of practice
• Value placed on professional collaboration
• Regular reading of professional literature
• Teaching seen as a rational activity

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Extended and Restricted Researcher
Professionality
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OHS professionality orientation models

• The OHS practitioner typically
• relies heavily on the ideas or practices that
  other OHS professionals in their professional
  network recommend, or which are prescribed by
  their managers, without wider evaluation.
• uses intuition and experience as the guiding
  frameworks for OHS practice.

• The OHS professional typically
• considers ideas from a range of sources including
  the tried and tested approaches of other OHS
  professionals and is aware of and draws upon the
  growing OHS evidence base, all the while
  evaluating all inputs for their applicability to
  the organisation and the industry in which the
  professional operates.
• uses theoretical principles and applies them to
  practice as a framework for solving problems and
  making decisions while understanding the
  limitations of those theories in the reality of
  practice and compensating for those limitations
  with ideas gained from experience.

Suggested by Susan Leggett and David Borys, VIOSH
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The restricted-extended teacher
professionality continuum
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Professionality and professionalism

• Professionality is an ideologically-,
  attitudinally-, intellectually-, and
  epistemologically-based stance on the part of an
  individual, in relation to the practice of the
  profession to which s/he belongs, and which
  influences her/his professional practice.
• Evans, L. (2002) Reflective Practice in
  Educational Research (London, Continuum)
• Hoyle (2008) the service component of
  professionalism

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The concept of professionalism

• Literature review
• socially constructed
• contextually variable
• service level agreement
• defined externally
• defined by the professionals themselves
• constantly being redefined
• status
• homogeneity

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Professionality and professionalism

• Professionalism is
• the plural of professionality
• professionality writ large
• the amalgamation of individuals
  professionalities.
• Professionalism is professionality-influenced
  practice that is consistent with commonly-held
  consensual delineations of a specific profession
  and that both contributes to and reflects
  perceptions of the professions purpose and
  status and the specific nature, range and levels
  of service provided by, and expertise prevalent
  within, the profession, as well as the general
  ethical code underpinning this practice.
• (Evans, L. (2008) Professionalism,
  professionality and the development of education
  professionals, British Journal of Educational
  Studies, 56 (1), 20-38)

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Professionalism and professionality

• Professionality is an ideologically-,
  attitudinally-, intellectually-, and
  epistemologically-based stance on the part of an
  individual, in relation to the practice of the
  profession to which s/he belongs, and which
  influences her/his professional practice.
• Professionalism is the perceived enactment of
  professionality-influenced practice that is
  consistent with commonly-held consensual
  delineations of a specific profession and that
  both contributes to and reflects perceptions of
  the professions purpose and status and the
  specific nature, range and levels of service
  provided by and expertise prevalent within the
  profession.

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The substance of professionalism

• A closer look at professionalism
• 2 main perspectives
• subjective professionalism
• objective professionalism
• 3 reified states of professionalism
• Professionalism that is demanded or requested
• specific service level demands or requests
• Professionalism that is prescribed
• envisaged or recommended service levels
• Professionalism that is enacted
• as observed
• Only the 3rd of these is real

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Key components of professionalism
Subjective professionalism
Functional component
Intellectual component
Attitudinal component
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intellectual component
What do practitioners know and understand?
What does the professional knowledge base
comprise? Are there specialist areas? Are there
minimum (general) practitioner knowledge
requirements?
comprehensive dimension
What is the basis of practitioners knowledge?

• Common sense and experience?
• Research and/or scholarship?
• In which disciplines/subjects?
• What depth?
• What width?
• Contextual differences?

epistemological dimension
To what extent do practitioners apply reason to
decision making?
Is practice underpinned by rationality,
intuition, or a mediation of the two?
rationalistic dimension
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attitudinal component
How do practitioners perceive things (issues,
situations, people, activity, etc.)? How do they
perceive their profession and its purpose?
What perceptions do practitioners hold? What
perceptions do they not hold? How
widespread/consensual are specific perceptions? Ar
e there any key/core perceptions?
perceptual dimension
How do practitioners evaluate things (issues,
situations, people, activity, etc.)? How do they
evaluate their profession and its purpose?
What values do practitioners hold? How
widespread/consensual are these values? Are there
any key/core values?
evaluative dimension
How motivated are practitioners? What motivates
them?
How motivated are practitioners? What motivates
them?
motivational dimension
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functional component
What processes do practitioners apply to their
practice?
Advising? Educating? Regulating? Policy
analysis? Knowledge generation? Learning? Inter-in
stitutional collegiality?
processual dimension
What procedures do practitioners apply to their
practice? What hierarchical procedures operate
within the workforce? What stratification exists
within the workforce?
Mode(s) of communication? Mode(s) of implementing
policy? Mode(s) of regulating? Mode(s) of
innovating? How is responsibility distributed
- for knowledge/role coverage? What layers of
practice exist?
procedural dimension
What is the nature of practitioners output? How
much do practitioners produce? What (if any)
productive yardsticks guide them?
What do practitioners do their remit and
responsibilities? Is their workload determined by
the clock set hours? Is workload determined by
the task in response to need?
productive dimension
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The professional development process

• The process involves enhancing individuals
  professionality.
• progression along the professionality continuum
• What does the professional development process in
  individuals involve?

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The professional development process in
individuals
Linda Evans (2007)
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The professional development process illustrated

• We introduced a pattern whereby students
  read a paper and then presented their views about
  the paper. We split the large group into three
  mini groups of eight and saw each of the three
  groups for one-third of the two hours. So we saw
  them in rotation and they had the other
  two-thirds of that session to prepare the paper
  for the following Thursday session. And we
  weren't very happy ... we didnt feel there was
  enough discussion going on some of the students
  werent reading the paper in advance, as wed
  asked them to. So we decided we needed to look
  again at that. So this current academic year,
  for the Thursday slot, we explicitly set it up as
  debates - still with the mini groups ... but we
  appointed two students from each of the mini
  groups to speak for a particular motion and two
  to speak against it, and the others to be
  witnesses, to interrogate the two sides. And we
  gave the students the motions for debate at the
  beginning of the term. They chose which of the
  ones they wanted to speak to ... . Thats been
  highly successful and I'm quite surprised how
  successful it's been this year. A lot of the
  students have said that's been the highlight of
  their four years here ... . That has really
  forced them to think critically and they've
  enjoyed it very much and got a lot out of it.
  (Anne, university lecturer)

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The professional development process illustrated

• We were all having to put up some displays
  with an ecology theme, and I got this idea from
  Jill a colleague which Jill thought was okay.
  So I eventually managed to pick out the best and
  pinned them up on the wall outside and they
  were there for two days, pinned up. Then I
  stapled them one night, and the following morning
  he the headteacher came in and he was
  genuinely embarrassed and he called me out of
  the classroom and he said, Im sorry, but its
  not good enough, so its got to come down. And
  he said, But, dont worry, Jills going to put
  some stuff there. Well, I was just absolutely
  demoralised totally demoralised!
• Interviewer Why was it not good enough,
  did he say?
• Well, looking at other work he just said,
  For Year 5, its not good enough its not
  professional enough. And I realised that when I
  saw other peoples work. But I realised what
  theyd done theyd just taken the best. It has
  to be top show, and youve to pick out your
  best children and get them to do something. And,
  to me, I personally dont like that because I
  dont like top show. But, alright, the work
  produced was super but, again, its knowing what
  to do. I was just lost.
• (Evans, L. 1998, Teacher morale, job
  satisfaction and motivation, London, Paul
  Chapman, pp. 113-4)

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The professional development process in
individuals (model 1)
Linda Evans (2007)
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The professional development process (model 2)
Linda Evans (2007) - work in progress
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Definitions of professional development

• Professional development is the process whereby
  peoples professionalism and/or professionality
  may be considered to be enhanced.
• Within this overarching definition, my current
  definition of individuals professional
  development is the enhancement of their
  professionality, resulting from their
  acquisition, through a consciously or
  unconsciously applied mental internalisation
  process, of professional work-related knowledge
  and/or understanding and/or attitudes and/or
  skills and/or competences that, on the grounds of
  what is consciously or unconsciously considered
  to be its/their superiority, displace(s) and
  replace(s) previously-held professional
  work-related knowledge and/or understanding
  and/or attitudes and/or skills and/or
  competences. (Evans, 2008, work-in-progress)

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The professional development process in
individuals

• Components
• recognition that theres an alternative
• a better way
• encountering a specific alternative
• evaluating the specific alternative
• recognising the specific alternative as a better
  way
• implies recognition of the perceived relative
  inadequacies of previous practice/views/knowledge
  etc.
• adoption of the perceived better way
• evaluation of the newly adopted
  practice/views/attitudes etc. as better than what
  it/they replaced
• Evans (2008) work-in-progress

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Professional developmentan ontological model
(2002)
Professional Development
Attitudinal Development
Functional Development
Procedural Change
Productive Change
Intellectual Change
Motivational Change
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Professional developmentan ontological model
(2008)(Evans, work in progress)
professional development
functional development
intellectual development
attitudinal development
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Issues for consideration

• Does the model apply to all elements of
  professional development?
• May each element involve a different process?
• Is there a process that, at the lowest
  reductionist level, is applicable to all three
  elements?
• stimulus to modify professional practice, or
  related attitudes, knowledge and/or understanding?