Graduates in a Differentiated Teaching Profession

Abstract

Following the Government decision in 1977 that all recruits to teaching in England and Wales must normally have a degree and be professionally trained, sane considered this removal of the earlier distinctions between graduate/non-graduate and trained/untrained teachers marked the beginning of a unified teaching profession. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which the two major groups of graduate, professionally trained recruits, with BEd and degree/PGCE qualifications, constitute a unified membership of the teaching profession. The teachers' inservice profiles, compiled from data provided by the teachers and their headteachers, are compared and combined with their pre-service profiles to assess the relative academic and professional status of the BEd and PGCE groups. This information was complemented by a more general evaluation of the BEd and PGCE teachers provided by a cross-section of headteachers. The analysis is conducted within a conceptual framework of professional differentiation, derived from the writings of Davis and Moore, Marshall, Jackson, and Bucher and Strauss. The major concepts of 'prestige' (ie. status of teaching responsibilities); ‘esteem' (ie. quality of performance); 'academic segment' and ‘professional segment' become scales for comparing the BEd and PGCE teachers. This model also allows for the possibility of external factors influencing the educational system and, more specifically, the status of the teachers. The results show that although the BEd group are regarded as more effective teachers the PGCE group obtain the more prestigious appointments. However the major division among the graduate teachers relates to the perceived difference in their academic status, which is exacerbated by the binary division in teacher education and related Government policies at present. Consequently, the recommendations are for an integrated system of teacher education and the withdrawal of the BEd degree as an inferior academic qualification.