“In this way, the concept of vocation can strengthen an ethical orientation related to a way of life, of being, and of doing that commits the person.”
(Fuentes, 2020, p. 50)
The dialogue between vocation and the teaching profession has resulted in ambivalence and dialectic encounters over the years.
Historically, the role of the professor has been more closely linked to the idea of teaching as a need to help others, as a call to teach with a sense of vocation and moral commitment to the teaching profession (Hansen, 1994, 2001). And that is why vocation introduces an ethical dimension to the daily duties of every professional.
But the passage of time and social transformations, as well as the needs of current teachers and educational institutions, seem to move away from this more spiritual understanding of education as a vocation. It is no longer seen as the only possibility, and it also aligns with the idea of teaching as a profession.
“The changes taking place in society impact the demand for a redefinition of the teacher’s job and probably the profession itself, their training, and their professional development.”
(Marcelo, 2006, p. 20)
It is clear that vocation does not replace the professional training that teachers need today. Therefore, the historical dilemma between vocation and profession no longer makes sense.
More than a century ago, Max Weber (1969) described a profession as the specialized activity that a person engages in that earns them “support”. But clearly, the (teaching) profession is more than that. Teaching is an activity that has a purpose in itself (educating), is carried out by a group of people (education professionals), and gives both identity and a feeling of belonging to the professional who engages in it (the educational community) (Cortina & Conill, 2000).
Then, is the task of educating a vocation? Or is it a profession? Perhaps the answer lies in synergy, a dynamic balance between the two: professionalism may be lacking in vocation, and vocation may be lacking in professionalism. But what really highlights this synergy is that true vocation entails the ethical demand to acquire teacher professionalism (Fuentes, 2020). This means not losing sight of the fact that the teaching profession will always be a caring profession, which, first and foremost, wants to favour the integral development of individuals. This requires being intellectually committed and being able to identify new areas of research and innovation to generate new pedagogical practices, as pointed out in the report entitled Reimagining our futures together. A new social contract for education (UNESCO, 2022).
After having examined the complementarity between vocation and profession in the context of education as a caring profession, you will be asked, in the following task, to reflect on this issue.
Back in 2020, Xavier López i Ortín, current director of the Octavio Paz school in Barcelona, published Mestres d’un Mestre (Barcelona, 2020). The synopsis of the book reads:
“The memoirs of a teacher so passionate about education that he completely transformed a school, which now sets the standard for education in Spain.”
Xavier López i Ortín, director of the prestigious public school Octavio Paz in Barcelona, tells us first-hand about his vocation as a teacher and how he turned the school around (which earned him major educational awards). A teacher made by teachers who takes on the challenge of accompanying our children in the construction of a better world, and does so with enthusiasm, conviction and without fear.
To complete the task, read «L’encàrrec», the first chapter of Mestres d’un mestre and try to identify and relate the elements of vocation, profession, and care the author expresses in the first person through his life story.
- Was it easy to distinguish between them?
- What was your reason behind choosing each element?
- What role does the ethical demand of the teaching profession play in this story?