EDUCATION - DEPROFESSIONALISED - OR REREGULATED, REORGANIZED AND REAUTHORISED

THIS paper considers recent claims that education is being deprofessio nalised. It argues that judgements about the deprofessionalisation, or reprofessionalisation, of education are made relative to different th eories of professionalism and discusses the way different theories of professionalism encourage particular focuses an, and readings of, empi rical data. The paper suggests that recent theoretical developments wh ich see professionalism as discourse offer a way of rethinking profess ionalism and educational change as part of an ongoing politics of know ledge, power and social groups which plays out in relationships betwee n state and civil society. The challenge is to see deprofessionalisati on and reprofessionalisation as part of an ongoing politics of knowled ge, power and social organisation, and to consider the character and p arameters of preferred reprofessionalisation that might be pursued thr ough contemporary processes of educational change.