The Paradox of the Teaching Profession Act no. 5 of 2013 – Building from Nominalism and Realism: A Mixed Method’s Approach

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VIII, Issue I, January 2021 | ISSN 2321–2705

The Paradox of the Teaching Profession Act no. 5 of 2013 – Building from Nominalism and Realism: A Mixed Method’s Approach

Daniel Mapulanga
PhD Candidate, Department of Educational Psychology, Sociology and Special Education, University of Zambia LUSAKA

Abstract: Professionalisation of teaching by law in Zambia was punctuated by controversy. The Teaching Profession Act that came into force in 2013 to rebrand teachers as professionals triggered controversy among the social actors and the general public. There are arguments that the law is inconsistent with the philosophy of professionalization as espoused by the Neo Weberian and Traitian theorists. Research was therefore set to examine the existence of a paradox in the Act against empirical evidence and the teachers’ own conceptualisation of profession from their natural world. The quantitative findings show that the law does not designate teachers with professional status because the mean scores per variable were all less than 5 which was the ideal standard, indicative that teachers perceived the law as alien to them. The study has exposed the inconsistencies of the teaching profession Act of 2013 by its failure to embrace the tenets of professions as propounded by the taxonomic and neo Weberian theories of professionalisation. From the focus group discussions, teachers further rejected the statute as alien and non-representative of their social world. This study has exposed the Act as having failed to borrow perspectives used in professionalising existing professional occupations operating in Zambia. The Act has detached itself from the ontological position which holds that rules of professionalisation for occupations operating within the same geographical space must be consistent. The panacea to the perceived contradictions henceforth is to repeal this Act and a new law enacted which must embrace recommendations proposed by this research.

Keywords: Copperbelt Region, Occupation, Profession, Professionalization, Semi-profession, Teaching.

I. INTRODUCTION

In jurisdictions where laws have been enacted to categorise occupations as professional groups, such statutes provide for what constitutes a profession. The Teaching Profession Act no. 5 of 2013 in Zambia ironically, has not done that. It is fashionable for every worker to claim that their occupation is indeed a profession. To teachers this claim is phenomenal because it denotes both pecuniary and non-pecuniary benefits. The enactment of the Teaching Profession Act of 2013 however has triggered a paradox, culminating into ideological struggle among teachers on one hand, the teacher reformers at the Ministry of General Education and the body of knowledge on the other.

Read More