The Teaching Profession

This volume contributes to debates about the teaching profession by reviewing international and national reports on its status, as well as on reforms of various education systems. It proposes a global approach to the quality of the teaching profession as a decisive ingredient of education quality, including a conception of its identity and a vision of its future. Moreover, it is suggested that professional self-regulation may be the best way to achieve higher professional and social status for teachers, since it allows educators collectively to assume the culture of the values that comprise the uniqueness and fullness of the teaching profession.

Part I: Education Quality and Quality of the Teaching Profession. - Main Approaches to Education Quality. - Most Far-reaching Lessons from Studies, Reforms and Reports Concerning Education Systems and the Teaching Profession Worldwide. - Part II: Professionality of Teachers. - Sociology of the Professions. - Teaching as a Profession- Part III: Self-regulation: A Bridge Between the Present and the Future of the Teaching Profession? . - Regulation of Professions. - Self-regulation of the Teaching Profession. - Conclusion.