Anatomy of Professions Steven Brint

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Anatomy of ProfessionsSteven Brint
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Contested Terms

• We find little agreement on the meaning of
  profession as a social structure, or the meaning
  of professionalism as a culture and practice.
• Some Issues
• 1) Given the variation among professions, what
  can we
• say unites them?
• 2) In what respect are professions distinct
  from skilled crafts or skilled managerial
  occupations?
• 3) Is a profession a social structure, a
  culture, or both?

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Intellectual History

• Three stages in the intellectual history
• 1) Structural-functional trait theories
  (1930s-1960s). A.H. Carr-Saunders and P.A.
  Wilson, Talcott Parsons, William F. Goode
• 2) Market monopoly/power theories (1970s-1980s).
  Eliot Freidson, Terence Johnson, Magali Sarfatti
  Larson
• 3) Third logic theory (1990s-2000s). Eliot
  Freidson

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Parsons Larson Freidson
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Phase 1 Trait Theories

• Professions organize asymmetric expert-client
  relations for client and social protection
• 1) Technical expertise and judgment required
• 2) Rigorous academic screening and training
  programs
• 3) Occupational licensing
• 4) Value and service ideals and codes of ethics
• 5) Workplace autonomy
• 6) Self-governing occupational community

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Value-Rationality, or Social Trustee
Professionalism
Professionals may, as in the case of the
successful doctor, grow rich but the meaning of
their profession, both for themselves and the
public, is not that they make money, but that
they make health, or safety, or knowledge, or
good government, or good law Professions
uphold as the criterion of success the end for
which the profession, whatever it may be, is
carried on, and subordinate the inclination,
appetites, and ambition of individuals to the
rules of an organization which has as its object
to promote the performance of function (R.H.
Tawney 1948 94-95).
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Phase 2 Market Monopoly/ Power Theories

• Educational credentialing and occupational
  licensing restrict labor supply and create market
  shelters.
• Market monopolies raise fees above what would be
  possible in more open systems. The interest of
  consumers is served by deregulation of entry and
  state regulation of practice.
• Professionalization is typically a collective
  mobility project of occupational elites.
• Service ideals and codes of ethics legitimate
  privilege. They are superficially held and
  inconsistently applied.

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Phase 3 Third Logic Theory

• The pendulum swings (part way) back in the
  1990s. E. Freidsons work emphasizes the
  possibility of anti-competitive abuse of
  sheltered occupations. He also presents a
  (qualified) defense of the social benefits of
  market shelters.
• One cause of change is the declining autonomy of
  once-powerful professions -- notably, medicine.
  Medicine (like other professions) becomes
  increasingly subject to market considerations and
  external bureaucratic regulation. Some see harm
  to patients in the results of these changes.

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The Soul of Professionalism

• For Freidson, the soul of professionalism is
  the occupational control of work. The occupation
  controls training, specializations, and
  licensing. It also governs and polices practice.
  Professions connect autonomy and control to
  responsibility for outcomes.
• The major alternative logics for the control of
  work are market control and bureaucratic control.
  (Technological and community control of work are
  other possibilities.)

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Defending the Social Benefits of Market Shelters
A market shelter can be defended if the shelter
does (much) more than inflate the earnings and
protect the prerogatives of those who benefit
from it. It must be seen as encouraging 1)
higher quality of work 2) more commitment to
work, and 3) more integrity in the conduct of
work than would be possible without it. In
addition, the services provided must warrant
protection because they have the capacity to 4)
produce a high minimum standard of benefits to
consumers and/or 5) reduce the potential for harm
at the hands of unqualified practitioners.
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Market Shelters Exclusion, Quality Control,
Commitment
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The New Environment Divided Control in Many
Professions

• Continued occupational control of recruitment,
  training, certification, and new knowledge
  development
• Increased state control over treatments/
• practice standards, monitoring of outcomes

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Teaching Semi-Profession or Profession?

• Teaching is often considered a semi-profession
  (see Etzioni 1969), because it is subject to
  decisive external regulation by the state and
  school district administrators.
• Neither regulation of practice nor responsibility
  for outcomes has historically been located in the
  profession.
• Yet pedagogy clearly involves abstract knowledge
  and skill, the influence of new knowledge on
  practice, and the exercise of knowledge/skill-base
  d discretion in practice.
• Institutionally teaching is not a profession, but
  aspects of professionalism inform training and
  practice.

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Other Questions Concerning Teacher Professionalism

• Questions have been raised about
• The depth of knowledge about curriculum and
  pedagogy that exists among practitioners
• The rigor of training programs that aim to impart
  knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy
• The consistency and standards of professional
  certification, and
• The capacity of the profession to create a market
  shelter and whether a tightly sealed market
  shelter is indeed desirable.

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Competing Forms of State Control of Teaching?

• Accountability legislation Strong focus on
  content standards, teacher and school
  responsibility for performance on standardized
  tests, strong emphasis on certification.
• CA Standards for the Teaching Profession
• Based on current researchpertaining to best
  teaching practices. Key elements (1) student
  engagement and support, (2) effective learning
  environments, (3) organizing subject matter, (4)
  designing learning experiences, (5) assessment,
  and (6) professional development.

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Professional Skills and Judgments

• Presentation and Evaluation Skills
• Choice of developmentally appropriate materials
• Organization of pace of instruction
• Search for educational materials that enhance
  interest and learning
• Judgment about when understanding is complete,
  rather than partial
• Development of Students Thinking and
  Experiencing Capacities
• Assign projects that allow for depth as well as
  breadth of coverage
• Seek to develop cognitive capacities beyond
  short-term retention (e.g., sustained thought,
  critical thinking, vivid expression)
• Seek to instill interest in learning
• Attention to social and emotional as well as
  cognitive objectives
• Social and Psychological Awareness
• Awareness of differences among children in
  socio-economic circumstances and learning styles

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Teachers Strong Emotions about
De-Professionalization

• I have said many times that you can take the
  janitor and he could follow the script and teach.
  There is no creativity.
• We are treated as absolute mindless
  minionsTeaching should be an art and it isnt
  much of an art anymore NCLB is the antithesis of
  autonomy.
• I want to put my hands on my hips and stomp my
  foot and say, How dare you?Its a real slap in
  the face (coming from people)who really dont
  know how to do it and havent had enough
  experience to say, We know how to make it
  happen heres your recipe. (Brint and Teele
  2007)

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References - 1

• Abbott, Andrew. 1988. The System of Professions
  An Essay on the Expert Division of Labor.
  Chicago University of Chicago Press.
• Brint, Steven. 1994. In An Age of Experts.
  Princeton Princeton University Press.
• __________. In press. Saving the Soul of
  Professionalism Eliot Freidsons Institutional
  Ethics and the Defense of Professional Autonomy.
  Knowledge, Work, and Society
• Brint, Steven and Sue Teele. 2007.
  Professionalism Under Siege Teachers Views of
  the No Child Left Behind Act. In Alan R.
  Sadovnik et al. (eds.) The No Child Left Behind
  Act and the Reduction of the Achievement Gap
  Sociological Studies of Federal Education Policy.
  New York Routledge.
• Carr-Saunders, A.H. and P.A. Wilson. 1933. The
  Professions. Oxford Oxford University Press.
• Etzioni, Amitai. 1969. The Semi-Professions. New
  York Free Press.

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References - 2

• Freidson, Eliot. 1970. Profession of Medicine A
  Study in the Sociology of Applied Knowledge.
  Chicago University of Chicago Press.
• _________. 2001. Professionalism The Third
  Logic. Chicago University of Chicago Press.
• Goode, William F. 1957. Community within a
  Community. American Sociological Review 22
  194-200.
• Johnson, Terence, 1967. Professions and Power.
  London Macmillan.
• Larson, Magali Sarfatti. 1977. The Rise of
  Professionalism. Berkeley University of
  California Press.
• National Association of Colleges and Employers.
  2007. Whats A Degree Worth? www.nace.org.
• Parsons, Talcott. 1939 1954. The Professions
  and Social Structure. Pp. 34-49 in Essays in
  Sociological Theory. New York Free Press.
• Tawney, R.H. 1948. The Acquisitive Society. New
  York Harcourt, Brace.