Beyond Lortie: New sociological perspectives on professions and their application to teaching

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium leverages contemporary sociological scholarship to conceptualize the teaching profession as tied to and interdependent with broader social and political environments. While the papers investigate a broad range of topics—e.g., the tension between expertise and democracy, public perceptions of teaching, the values that motivate graduate students—they share a conceptual model of teaching in which tasks and challenges are understood as emerging in interaction with social and political forces. The symposium seeks to align research into the teaching profession with contemporary sociological trends, root education research in the realities of a profession that operates in a pluralistic society, and present teaching as a case that enables cross-professional comparisons and to which contemporary sociological theory can be applied and refined.

Sub Unit

• Division I - Education in the Professions

Chair

• Joshua L. Glazer, The George Washington University

Papers

• Teaching is Both Public and Professional: How Can it be Both? - Joshua L. Glazer, The George Washington University

• A Degree of Choice: The Role of Occupations in Educational Decision-Making - Maya Kaul, University of Pennsylvania; Ellen Bryer, Brown University

• Towards a Public, Relational Notion of Educational Professionalism - Jal David Mehta, Harvard University; Krista Galleberg, Harvard University

• The ‘Double-Edged Sword’ of Teacher Professionalism: Fusing Expertise and Democratic Conceptions to Rebuild Public Trust - Ayelet Becher, The Open University of Israel

• The Rise (and Fall?) of Professionalism: Logics of Work in Popular Discourse About Teachers in the United States, 1990-2019 - Matthew Shirrell, The George Washington University

Session Organizer

• Joshua L. Glazer, The George Washington University

Discussant

• Pamela L. Grossman, University of Pennsylvania