RENOWNED educational researchers Michael Fullan and Andrew Hargreaves in 2012 floated the concept of professional capital being fundamental to the quest to transform and improve schools. In observing that the prevailing approach to teaching and schooling is still based on a business/value-added model, where education is treated as a commodity and its purpose essentially being the creation of workers and consumers, they recognised that this approach is antithetical to the modern concept of education and that if schools are to improve, this capital concept must be reoriented and revamped.
They noted some of the inherent dangers of this schooling model being the simplification of the task of the teacher as a sub-professional which demands minimal investment, does not require rigorous pre- and ongoing specialised training and that teaching can be driven by data and ultimately that technology can replace teachers.
The global attempts by big technology and education service corporations to privatise education and either replace teachers or minimise their role through artificial intelligence, remote learning and standardised tests are well documented. The covid19 pandemic has given them further opportunity to press their case to the point where some feel that physical schools are no longer needed or their role severely diminished.
The professional capital approach to teaching has now become more critical, given the current emphasis on remote learning. Suddenly teachers were forced to retool, reorient their thinking, engage in professional collaboration and re-engineer their approach to pedagogy, infusing the use of information and communication technology; in short, significantly enhancing their professional competence in quick time.
Fullan and Hargreaves advance the notion that professional capital is the confluence of human, decisional and social capital, synergising to enhance the capacity of the school to achieve its objectives. The quality of a school is thus a reflection of the quantum of professional capital that can be expressed in form and function.
Human capital essentially reflects what teachers know and can do as individuals and is the outcome of their specialised training and professional development. Social capital, on the other hand, refers to what teachers bring collectively from their community connections which encompasses cultural practices, and that which shapes their social being, such as norms and values and what they can do together. Decisional capital refers to the wisdom, knowledge and expertise of the teacher to make sound judgments about learners over a period of time.
The challenge of school leadership, especially in the current pandemic circumstance, is to leverage these three forms of capital to create a professional capital culture that will enable teachers to be sufficiently committed to self-regulation, be self-directed life-long learners, engage in reflective practice and build and maintain professional learning communities in and out
