How to Maintain Teacher Professionalism and Why That's Important

Hey, Teachers!

How do you gain respect from students, parents, colleagues, and administrators? 

Professionalism.

Professionalism is a strategy for success as a classroom teacher. It includes you think of yourself as a practitioner, the tone you set in your teaching space, and how you interact with everyone on the job.

Even if you're being targeted on the job, professionalism is one intentional way of turning things around. One school year I was marked "unprofessional" across all domains of the teaching evaluation before students ever walked in my class. This was clearly not about my true performance on the job or my competency as a teacher, but I had to turn that ship around...cleverly, and by underscoring professionalism at every juncture to get back my reputation. (And although I've made mistakes on the job over the years like every teacher has, what happened to me that school year was unjustified. My skills in being a professional helped me to transcend the situation and get back on solid ground with that school.)

What is professionalism in 2024 and how do you magnify it as a teacher when everything feels so uncertain, unpredictable, and more difficult than in years' past?

When we seek professionalism as practitioners we're underscoring part of our teacher self-image that says, "I'm confident. I'm capable. And I'm a team player."

Your teacher self-image drives what you say and do on the job. 

Following are three central components to PROFESSIONALISM as a classroom teacher. 

1. Professional Appearance

Having a professional appearance doesn't mean you're spending hundreds a month on fashionable attire.  It can involve your impression based on clothing, but it also has to do with your demeanor and how you command attention in a room. People who are "put together" carry themselves well. 

Ask yourself: How "put together" are you? Has this been a challenge or does it come easily? Are you comparing yourself to others? Trying to be like other "respected" or "favored" teachers? Or are you basking in your own authenticity? 

When I first began teaching, I was young so I wore suits, heels, and nylons most days because I really wanted to stand out among students who were only five years younger. I felt most professional "dressing up" for work (and that was also back in the 1990s when more teachers were wearing collared shirts and ties, and dresses). But a veteran teacher in our English department often wore ripped jeans and sweatshirts that were paint-stained from working on her house. She also swore in department meetings. Yet, she was respected by her students, parents, staff, and administration, largely because of the community contributions she made, her support and involvement in protecting the rights of indigenous populations in that area, and her experience and expertise as an ELA teacher.

Ask yourself: How is my appearance impacting my professionalism? What's my own personal standard, and does it conflict with expectations in my organizational culture? How do I "appear" to others? What message am I sending?

2. Professional Communication

The way you handle conflict, make recommendations, provide feedback, answer questions, offer solutions, raise concerns, address administration, work with colleagues, treat your students, and interact in both verbal and written communication increases or decreases your professionalism.  Mocking being a classroom teacher on social media, being sarcastic, reacting emotionally to concerns or attacks, being argumentative, standing your ground in isolation and combatively, challenging policies in a manner that renders you noncompliant on the job, breaking trust, being underhanded, or fighting fire with fire...All of these choices will diminish your credibility as a practitioner. They aren't professional behaviors.

Ask yourself: How effective are you in communication? Do you acknowledge all parties' concerns and validate others in your expressions and responses? Do you ridicule students or encourage them? Are you taking aspects of the job too seriously? Not seriously enough? Valuing student work or trashing it when no one's looking? 

When we are team players on the job, this doesn't mean we've conformed to all shared beliefs and values of the system. But it also doesn't mean we share those personal differences outright. 

When we are team players on the job, we're working to create harmony, unity, and positive outcomes for students. That's our # 1 focus: student learning and growth. Yelling at students, swearing at students, or being eager to punish students reflects negativity in how we think of our teaching roles.

When we are team players on the job, our words and actions reflect our own professional beliefs and values about creating solutions, not fueling fires. Badmouthing others openly or through gossiping, emphasizing content instead of feelings when being attacked by parents, and challenging administration in ways that will come back to hurt us reflects negativity in how we see ourselves as colleagues and stewards of learning.

Lastly, if we find ourselves arguing with students, trying to be right, putting students down, or feeling defensive, our communication likely isn't professional which also makes it ineffective. 

Ask yourself: How do my words and actions increase or decrease professionalism? What behaviors do I observe among staff that is working against our shared goals? Which circle am I in? What's safe to say, and when? And how do I approach conflict-resolution with my colleagues and supervisors? What kind of mindset do I have and is that intended persona what's coming through?

How centered am I?

3. Professional Contributions

The most positively influential and memorable colleagues are the ones who we rely upon for counsel, emotional support, tried-and-true resources and lesson templates, brainstorming...and leadership. You know who those teachers are in your building. If you're a veteran teacher, you might be one of those teachers to someone else. Teachers who give everything to the art of teaching, are role models to both staff and students, and who have made mistakes but made those mistakes work for them by learning and growing, are professionals. 

We face criticism, backlash, and disrespect in this industry. This includes management who brings in "experts" to teach us a concept or two instead of using us as credible sources for teaching one another.

We face the lockstep dance of constantly having to prove ourselves through completing clock hour PD hoops, passing teacher evaluations sometimes based on only one classroom visit in the entire school year, meeting the expectations of others, and trying to uphold the basic tenets of our own personal teaching philosophies alongside policies we may or may not have voted for.

Ask yourself: How professional am I when it comes to my contributions? Am I a go-getter? Do I value collaboration? Am I distrustful of sharing my ideas? Am I humble, recognizing that community is a strength, not a hindrance in my professional development? How cynical do I become about the things I don't agree with? And does that show? And how does it play out in my relationships with students?

In this day and age in teaching, we have to work harder to be professionals and to be seen as professionals.

Gone are the days when parents and guardians put the burden of proof on the student, not us

Gone are the days when administration's vision matched ours (with some exceptions)

Gone are the days when our word was golden and valued because we were the teacher

Gone are the days when we had more complete autonomy over the teaching and learning dynamic

But emphasizing professionalism is here to stay.

Our professionalism inevitably affects instruction and how students feel in our classrooms, whether in-person or online.

It's always important to acknowledge our feelings and disagreements, have that "good cry", journal our frustrations, and share our concerns with a trusted friend, but it's also important to look at our teacher self-image (beliefs, values, perceived ability) because we want to consistently make the best decisions for the best outcomes in all of our roles as teachers.

This is part of what being a teacher-leader is all about.