Maltese teachers and their professional autonomy

Abstract

This work first identifies what a professional occupation implies and the importance of autonomy for an occupation to be called a profession. It also looks at certain models and criteria for Professionalism. Emphasis is put on occupational and organizational autonomy which are both very important for an occupation to be seen as a profession. The local situation is then looked at closely and research carried out through questionnaires attempt to establish the degree of occupational and organizational autonomy enjoyed by Maltese teachers. Through the questionnaires distributed among primary and secondary school teachers of both state and non-state schools one will see how teachers view themselves and how autonomous they feel they are. The questions therefore that are answered are whether teaching is a profession and whether Maltese teachers feel they have autonomy that is a part of being a professional and how autonomous they feel when compared to other occupations. Reasons why teaching as a profession has been questioned are looked into as well as the restrictions on their autonomy. This work also looks at the writing of established authors on the subject and relates them to the local situation.