Having read Schon's article again, I think much of what he is saying regarding professionals is true. Over the course of many years we have seen the proliferation of the 'professional', particularly due to the status and monetary value that these careers deliver. As a result, careers regarded as 'non-professional' are undervalued, as are the people who are employed in them. If, as Schon says, 'professionally designed solutions to public problems have unanticipated consequences, sometimes worse than the problems they were designed to solve', is it any wonder that there is now a crisis of confidence in professional knowledge. When we see heads of banks utterly failing in their jobs, social workers utterly failing 'at risk' children, and scandals regarding doctors killing their patients, the crisis is understandable. However, as we all know there are wonderful professionals who are highly committed to the work that they do, and for these individuals it is unfortunate that they are 'tarred with the same brush'.
With regard to teachers, I've often heard it said that they just want to teach, to to the job that they trained to do, and love to do. But, complaints of being 'bogged down with paperwork' are common, and I feel that the conflicts of values, goals, purposes, and interests are particularly experienced by them due to the control and demands placed on them by the powers above. They are not free to teach what they want to teach, free to do what they want to do in the classroom, and this leaves little room for true creativity and freedom.
This leads me on to the question of artistry - I think that many individuals are naturally 'artistic' in their work, but if they are so, they are considered to be in some way, out of the norm. They are recognised as being different from others in their approach, which in turn is a reflection of the prevailing model of professional knowledge.
Canisp's vision for the future....part 2
17 years ago
