Pretending Teaching is a Profession: Why Public School Teaching Will Never Be Considered a True Profession

My endeavor in this thesis is to discuss why teaching is not, and has never been considered, part of the true professions. Although much rhetoric is aimed at classifying teachers as true professionals and the teaching field as a true profession, the historical, sociological, and societal means that govern the ideological foundation of a true profession are lacking in the field of education. By using a historical, sociological, philosophical, and linguistic analysis of the words “true profession”, along with “unions”, private teaching organizations, etc., I am able to demonstrate not only why teaching is not a profession, but that teaching will never be a profession, even when the discourse for teachers insist that they are “professional”. It will be such unless the education system as we currently know it ceases to exist and is replaced with a completely different model. Therefore, I will attempt to create a new classification for the field of teaching besides that of a “profession”.