Role over person: Legitimacy and authenticity in teaching

This paper discusses competing norms for justifying teacher decisions, their effects on productivity and legitimacy in teaching, and the teaching profession as a moral and learning community. Drawing on philosophical analyses and studies of elementary and secondary schools, teacher preparation, staff development, and the adoption of innovations, it argues that personal orientations (centering on personal habits, interests, and opinions) remove teacher decisions from the realm of criteria for judging appropriateness. Personal reasons have explanatory value; they carry less weight when justifying professional action. Role orientation involves references to larger, organized contexts, including the disciplines of knowledge, group purposes, and societal issues.