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AAE Survey: Teacher Professionalism
posted by: Melissa | July 27, 2015, 07:29 PM   


AAE has always been committed to advancing the professionalism of educators. We believe that teachers are true professionals with valuable insights and unique talents and strengths. In order to gauge how our members feel about issues surrounding professionalism, we conducted a poll on what it means to be a true professional.

 

The first concept we had to establish was how our members viewed the overall importance and standing of teacher professionalism.  We found the following:

 

 

“Teachers are viewed as professionals by society at large.”  Do you agree with this statement?

 

 

G1 

 

 

How important do you feel it is that teaching be viewed as a profession?


G2

 


Quite often, stories about teachers, both as individuals and as a group, are highlighted in the news.  Overall, do you feel that the types of stories that the news features about teachers, both good and bad, tend to increase or decrease the professional standing of teachers in the eyes of society at large?


G3

 

We then asked our surveyed members about the most important aspects of teacher professionalism.  The greatest majority of the answers related to personal behavior.  For example, many members stressed behaviors like “dressing better” or “adjusting tone of voice” as ways to be viewed as more professional.  Similar to this, many members surveyed stressed the necessity of teachers having a more positive and professional attitude when dealing with parents, administrators, and the community.  There was also a large group that felt that teacher professionalism could not be achieved until there was greater support from the community.

 

Various themes emerged when tasked with what tools teachers need to advance professionalism.  Overall, teachers were interested in engaging more effectively in policy discussions.  The next top answers both related to methods on how to work with others.  One was collaborating more effectively with colleagues, and another was positive methods of working with administrators.  You can see the top results to both questions below:

 

Perceived Views on Teacher Professionalism and Desired Knowledge


What do you feel is the most important aspect to increasing teacher professionalism?

 

 

Is there one area of teacher professionalism that you would appreciate extra help in achieving?

 

View

Percentage

View

Percentage

A change in teacher behavior

Greater support from the community

More positive attitudes by the teachers

More and/or better professional development

Less interference by government and/or administrators

Higher salary

Doing a better job of explaining teacher views to the public

15%

14%

 

10%

 

10%

 

7%

 

6%

5%

 

Engaging more effectively in policy discussions

How to collaborate effectively with colleagues

Dealing with administrators

Keeping up to date on pedagogy

Obtaining expertise in educational issues

8%

 

7%

 

6%

5%

 

5%

 

Teacher professionalism is still critically important to advancing our profession and closing achievement gaps.  Moving forward, AAE plans to take the information that we’ve gathered and put it to good use, finding ways to help our members achieve the professionalism that they, and we, desire.

 

How should teachers advance their professionalism?
Comment below.

 

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