A Profession Taken for Granted

Public education has probably never been the subject of so much discussion as it is today. However, an observer from afar might be puzzled by the seeming lack of attention paid to the voice of teachers in this discussion and by their apparently low status in the education scheme. He might conclude that teachers are taken for granted and that they, in turn, take for granted the education framework devised by others. The issue of the role of teachers in education brings into question the arrangements under which teachers work. Work arrangements are the complex of factors that affect how the members of an occupation participate in their work process. Examples of such factors are the type of tenure, the system of authority in the work process, the methods by which the terms of employment are decided, and the nature of occupational organization. The wage system, peonage, and slavery are broad examples of work arrangements. If anyone were to suggest that teachers provide their services under arrangements similar to slavery, there would undoubtedly be a great hue and cry. And teachers would join in strenuously. Of course, no serious person would propose such an absurdity. But even if the work arrangements in our school systems are less extreme than slavery, it may be worthwhile to examine the overall conditions under which teachers do provide their services. For the teaching profession is important to education, comprising its