'Bound by Recognition': Some Thoughts on Professional Designation for Teachers

A recent move in the effort to professionalize teaching has been a call for a professional designation for teachers in some Canadian jurisdictions. While teacher certification or licensure seeks to protect public interest and is concerned about professionalism--the quality of teachers' work--professional designation is concerned with public recognition of teachers' professional status, that is, acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the intellectual and ethical location from which teachers act--teachers' identities. While not wishing to argue for or against professional designation per se, I do want to reveal a certain predicament that results when the teaching profession becomes "bound by recognition" (Markell, 2003). The predicament relates to the limits of identity: in the context of recognitive encounters with others, human beings constantly exceed and frustrate prior identifications, often contradicting their own expressed and deepest commitments. What then, one may ask, is the use value of recognition for the profession? (Contains 6 notes.)