The teaching profession and teacher education: Trends and challenges in the twenty-first century
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The paper sets out to show that teaching is among the five undeniably oldest and historically character-shaping professions in the world, the others being engineeringarchitecture, medicine, law, and accounting and each of these professions has a unique
story in connection with its genesis and its influence on social organisation. The paper
indicates, however, that while the other four have had a comparatively better advantage in
terms of occupational status, social esteem, popular veneration or respect, teaching has not
enjoyed a similar experience and treatment. An analysis is undertaken into the historical
and contemporary factors of similarity and contrast among the professions in the varying
levels of self-image building, status and public adulation that have made the teaching
profession “an unequal among equals”. Recommendations and propositions are then
offered towards correcting the situation and making the teaching profession attractive to
the younger generation of men and women of tomorrow and the future, particularly within
the eastern and southern Africa region.
Keywords
teaching, profession, education