Teachers’ Profession in Mainland China, Research Status and Development Trend of

Introduction

Profession may refer to what an individual specializes in a particular area or the skill an individual has. Considering the fact that teacher has a well-defined social role, teachers’ profession is often regarded as a special field of teachers’ occupation. The premise of holding this view is to regard teaching as a specialized occupation. In Chinese traditional language context, “teachers’ profession” is often used interchangeably with “teachers’ occupation.” With the professional type theory and professional characteristics theory proposed by Carr-Saunders (Carr-Saunders and Wilson 1933) and Lieberman (1956) in the middle of the twentieth century, as well as the international policy recommendations such as “Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers” promoted, the consciousness of “teachers’ profession” initially formed in Mainland China in the early 1990s. Some scholars began to propose that the wording of teachers’ occupation should be irreplaceable.

The existing...