The Crisis in the Teaching Profession - Essay Example

The paper "The Crisis in the Teaching Profession" is a great example of an essay on education. Teaching is a profession that adds great value to society and individuals. Good teachers are critical for creating and maintaining meaningful society and human life. However, the worth and value that the teachers get in exchange for their passionate services and professional contribution are often low as compared with other professions (Hargreaves, 2001). Due to this fact, teaching is commonly regarded as an undervalued, unappreciated and underpaid profession and these impressions and attitudes have jointly worked towards engendering crisis within the teaching profession.

  Over the last few years, the impression of the undervaluation of the teachers has strongly been established in society. The spirited debate about the value of the teaching profession is surrounded by heated argument. The advocates of crisis within the teaching profession believe that teachers are widely overvalued and underpaid due to which they are not able to earn social recognition and status and eventually there are many people especially males do not view teaching as suitable and bright career choice for them and despite their passion and desire to teach they go towards other professions and consequently the society fails to avail the worthwhile services of a teacher (Chaib et al, 2011).

Teachers are like water for society and without teachers, it would not be possible for society to survive and progress. The teachers possess enormous value to the society and the people but this value should be recognized by the authorities and general people so that teachers could also secure their rightful place in the society. At present, society seems lacking awareness regarding the importance of teacher due to which the teachers are widely calling for help and attention of the authorities towards their professions.

It is widely believed that better working conditions, greater community recognition, and improved pay scales could help the teaching profession come out from the waves of crisis while overcoming the issue of undervaluation (Langford, 1978). There are several issues that contribute towards crisis within the teaching profession due to the undervaluation of teachers and their low pay scales. Since the profession has been undervalued and regarded as less attractive the ratio of male teachers is also considerably low in teaching.

Teaching has evolved as a profession more suitable for women due to its flexibility whereas the males are not attracted to this profession due to the low level of salaries and low social recognition. There is a general impression of the teaching profession that the salaries of the teachers are usually lower than another profession. Though it is not right in all the cases because at certain positions teachers are getting attractive salaries, however, the overall pay scales of teachers are lower than other professions due to which teaching is often associated with lower social status and the teachers is also considered as a person belonging to middle and lower economic class.

The teachers also have the responsibility to improve their image in front of the people so that others could also be motivated to join teaching as a profession rather deeming it a less appreciated and undervalued working area (Carter, 2002). Though there are many people who believe teaching is a vocation that they join for the outcome rather income its professional status could not be ignored and there must be incentives and good salaries for the teachers to attract people towards this profession.

It is imperative to value the people who worked to improve people and society with their dedication and skills. Teachers like any other profession also need motivation and benefits to remain to attach with this profession because regardless of the passion and desire to teach there are certain social and economic needs that should be met by their profession. There is essential need to create and spread awareness regarding the critical importance and worth of the teaching profession because the society could flourish and positively progress only when the members of the society are taught to be good citizens and individual.

This important task has to be performed by the teachers who need appreciation and value for their professional responsibilities. The societies had little respect and value for the teachers could not progress significantly in the long run because they would be able to facilitate the teachers to construct the wellbeing and attitude of its people (Dunham, 2002). A healthy and well-functioning society could be maintained only by providing due respect, value, and dignity to the teachers and solving the issue of their undervaluation.

Teachers inspire and shape the lives of the people and assist them in becoming a useful member of society. The contributions of teaching professionals are much valuable and important for society as compared with any other profession due to which attention must be given to the issues that hinder the growth and development of this profession and demotivate the people to pursue their careers in this field.