Today teaching is recognized as a profession that requires higher education and specialized expertise; yet for most of history, teaching was a duty carried out under the responsibility of religious institutions. In this lesson, which opens the eleventh unit, we examine the role of the teacher within the education system, how teaching developed as a profession, the conditions a job must meet to be considered a profession, and the legal definition of teaching in Türkiye.

What will you learn in this episode?

• Define the role of the teacher within the education system
• Explain the relationship between cultural learning, enculturation, instruction, and the teacher
• Explain the historical development of teaching from religious institutions to secular teacher training schools
• Understand the developments that led to the opening of the first teacher training schools in Europe and in the Ottoman State
• List the conditions of professionalization a job must meet to be considered a profession
• Explain the legal definition of teaching in the Turkish education system and the three areas of knowledge in teacher education

Summary of this episode

Why is the role of the teacher constantly redefined?

As the social order changes and grows more complex, individuals’ learning needs, goals, and tools become more diverse; the knowledge, skills, and competencies they must acquire increase in both number and quality. This gives rise to new individual and social expectations from education. For this reason, the duties and responsibilities of schools, the length of schooling, its goals (the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values individuals are expected to acquire), the ways of reaching these goals, and the competencies of the teachers responsible for them must be constantly redefined.

The role of the teacher in the education system

From the moment of birth, individuals learn knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values by interacting with their environment. From the individual’s point of view this process is called cultural learning (kültürlenme); from society’s point of view it is called enculturation. Schools are organized institutions charged with instilling, in a planned way, the behavioral characteristics that social life expects individuals to acquire, and this task has been entrusted to specialists called teachers. In other words, passing on culture is a general function of society; at school this function is carried out through instruction and by the hands of the teacher.

Schools are a subsystem of the education system. Their ability to raise individuals who meet individual and social needs depends on their teaching staff, in terms of both number and quality. That is why, in every country, training teachers to plan, implement, and evaluate the teaching and learning process effectively at the type and level of school where they will work is regarded as a social duty of the state. This is also why every new arrangement in education brings with it the search for higher-quality teacher education.

Learning at school does not happen on its own; it takes place through conscious, purposeful activities the teacher plans on the basis of a program, with the teacher’s guidance and support. Accordingly, the role of the teacher within the education system can be summarized as follows:

• Motivating and preparing students to learn
• Providing direction and guidance so that the intended learning takes place
• Organizing and carrying out suitable instructional activities
• Evaluating learning

How did teaching emerge?

Teaching as an occupation emerged together with schools. In early periods, education passed from one individual to another: those who held knowledge passed it on to the young, who learned by observing and imitating them. As people began to live within a social order and knowledge accumulated, this way proved insufficient. The need to pass this accumulated knowledge on to new generations gave rise to organized education, that is, to schools where those with knowledge taught it to the young. Over the course of history, teaching was seen in turn as the work of wise people, knowledgeable people, and educated people.

Education as a subsystem of religion

The education system was first institutionalized as a subsystem of religion, which had become an institution earlier. In this period, which lasted until roughly the end of the eighteenth century, religious elements and teachings shaped social life; since the state governing society also embraced these principles, the task of education was to pass on the social culture shaped by religious teachings. The content of education consisted largely of religious education, and the role of teacher was taken on by clergy. Monasteries, church schools, and seminaries in Christian countries; medreses in Islamic countries; and neighborhood schools (mahalle mektepleri) and medreses in the Ottoman State are examples of the schools of this period.

The Enlightenment and secular teacher training schools

In Europe, the Age of Enlightenment, which followed the Renaissance and the Reformation, together with the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, accelerated the institutionalization of a secular education system and the spread of schools. Enlightenment philosophy aimed to raise free individuals who believe in their own abilities and strength. This new understanding of education, democratic, secular, and focused on the positive sciences, also changed the view of teaching: the idea spread that, instead of clergy acting as teachers, schools should be staffed by people trained specifically to be teachers in line with the new approach.

This idea was first put into practice in European countries. In the early eighteenth century, a school training primary school teachers was opened in Germany. In France, after the Revolution, a teacher training school was founded in 1794 to train teachers who embraced the values of the secular republic; although it soon closed, it reopened in 1808. In the 1830s and 1840s, teacher training schools free from the influence of the church were founded in England and Belgium. In the United States, Teachers College, affiliated with Columbia University and still counted among the country’s leading teacher education institutions, was opened in the late nineteenth century.

The first teacher training schools in the Ottoman State

In line with these developments in Europe, as part of the modernization efforts that began with the Tanzimat, more modern primary and secondary schools were opened in the Ottoman State alongside neighborhood schools and medreses, and teacher training schools were founded to train teachers for them. The first teacher training school for men (Darülmuallimin) opened on 16 March 1848, and the first teacher training school for women (Darülmuallimat) in 1870. Thus, in the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, teaching came to be defined as a profession requiring expertise, and teacher training schools began to spread.

When does a job become a profession?

Today teaching is recognized as a profession throughout the world. As a profession, teaching can be defined as the duty of providing teaching and learning services in public or private educational institutions of various types and levels in formal and non-formal education. For a job to be considered a profession, it must meet the conditions of professionalization that apply to almost all professions. The most important of these are:

1. The job is defined as a profession by the state, the power that regulates social life
2. The profession is accepted by society
3. Completion of a special education that provides the knowledge, skills, and competencies the profession requires, and certification of that education
4. Fulfillment of the other conditions set for entry into the profession
5. The existence of ethical rules and principles for the profession

The legal definition of teaching in Türkiye

In the Turkish education system, too, teaching is defined by law as a profession. The Secondary School Teachers Law (Orta Tedrisat Muallimleri Kanunu) No. 439 of 13 March 1924 defined teaching as a profession that undertakes the duty of education and instruction, one of the general services of the state, and that is divided into its own grades and ranks. The Basic Law of National Education No. 1739 of 14 June 1973 defined teaching as a special professional field of expertise (ihtisas) that undertakes the state’s duties of education, instruction, and the related administration. The same law required that teachers at all levels of education receive higher education and that preparation for teaching cover three areas of knowledge:

• General cultural knowledge
• Subject-matter knowledge
• Professional teaching knowledge

Under this arrangement, starting from the 1974–1975 academic year, the training of primary school teachers, previously given in primary teacher schools at the secondary level, was moved to two-year institutes of education at the higher education level.

Although the law made teacher education covering these three areas compulsory, different routes were used from time to time to meet the need for teachers. For example, in the early 1960s, high school graduates were allowed to do their military service as reserve officer teachers, and high school and middle school graduates were appointed as substitute teachers; in the second half of the 1990s, graduates of higher education from various fields were appointed as teachers to meet the need for classroom teachers. The source emphasizes that such temporary solutions, which do not meet the conditions of professionalization, led society to perceive teaching as a job that can be done without teacher education. This assessment also shows why professional teaching knowledge is indispensable.

In short

The teacher is the specialist who turns the goals of the school into students’ real learning: motivating, guiding, organizing and carrying out instructional activities, and evaluating. Teaching, which began as part of the religious system, became with the Enlightenment the profession of specialists trained in secular teacher training schools; with the first teacher training school opened in 1848, this journey began in our lands as well. For a job to be considered a profession, it requires definition by the state, social acceptance, certified special education, entry conditions, and ethical principles. In Türkiye, teaching was defined by Law No. 1739 as a special professional field of expertise (ihtisas) based on general cultural knowledge, subject-matter knowledge, and professional teaching knowledge.

Key concepts

• Cultural learning (kültürlenme): The individual’s learning of society’s knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values through interaction with the environment.
• Enculturation: Society’s passing on of its culture to new generations.
• Organized education: The planned teaching, in schools, of knowledge by those who hold it to the young.
• Enlightenment: A movement of thought that aimed to raise free individuals who believe in their own abilities and strength, and that accelerated the spread of secular education.
• Darülmuallimin: The first teacher training school for men in the Ottoman State, opened in 1848.
• Darülmuallimat: The first teacher training school for women in the Ottoman State, opened in 1870.
• Conditions of professionalization: Definition by the state, social acceptance, certified special education, entry conditions, and ethical principles that a job needs in order to be considered a profession.
• Special professional field of expertise (ihtisas): The professional definition used for teaching in Law No. 1739.
• General cultural knowledge: Broad-based knowledge every professional is expected to acquire.
• Subject-matter knowledge: Specialized knowledge of the subject the teacher will teach.
• Professional teaching knowledge: Knowledge and skills about what to teach, to whom, why, where, and how.

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Sources used:
Sağlam, M. (2008). Öğretmen eğitimi [Teacher education]. In M. Gültekin (Ed.), Eğitim Bilimine Giriş [Introduction to Educational Science] (Unit 11). Eskişehir: Anadolu Üniversitesi Yayınları.

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