Teacher professionalism reconceptualised: personal practical professionalism (PPP)

This study critically examines managerial paradigms of teacher professionalism and proposes an alternative conceptual framework: Personal Practical Professionalism (PPP). Dominant discourses emphasise standardised competencies, accountability metrics and institutional conformity, neglecting teachers’ ethical agency, personal identity and reflective practice. By synthesising poststructuralist theory, the ethics of care, situated learning and reflective practice, PPP reconceptualises professionalism through five interrelated dimensions: subjectivity and identity-centred, contextual and situated, relational and ethical, reflective and experiential, and transformative and resistant professionalism. Each dimension foregrounds a distinct analytic question about teachers’ work, and the dimensions remain entangled in practice rather than functioning as discrete categories. PPP treats teachers’ subjective experiences, ethical commitments and contextual responsiveness as integral to professional practice, advocating a dynamic, holistic and morally engaged approach to teaching. The study further specifies how PPP can be applied: as an analytic lens for narrative and policy research, as a basis for designing teacher education and professional development, and as an alternative referent for appraisal, with guiding questions for each. In doing so, it offers grounds for reconsidering professional development programmes and evaluation frameworks so that they do justice to teachers’ lived experience and professional autonomy.