Teachers for The Futures? Neglected Sociomaterial Dimension of Teacher Professionalism

Abstract

The current study surveys the current understandings of teaching professionalism in Hong Kong and considers the ways how the definition could be re-written to allow better reflection of the professional realities of teachers particularly in the post-COVID world, which is expected to be much characterized by technology-mediated learning and teaching. Fifteen teachers and members from other sectors were interviewed and their responses were analyzed with a particular focus on the sociomaterial aspects of the teaching profession. As expected, the official teacher registration procedures, abstract educational aims and structured professional learning opportunities were indicated as what qualify and characterize teaching as a profession. The sociomaterial attention excluded from informants’ responses suggests the need to highlight the embedded nature of teachers’ work in a renewed definition of teacher professionalism through foregrounding the previously black-boxed processes, and the needed thoughtfulness on the material aspects of everyday educational processes that go beyond classroom. This paper should help to re-open the dialogue on the meaning of teacher professionalism and to indicate the need to re-develop the teacher education programmes for cultivating critical users of emergent and pervasive educational technologies.