20 Reasons why Teaching is a Profession

Teaching is not merely a job—it is a true profession, carrying the characteristics of specialized knowledge, long-term preparation, ethical responsibility, public service orientation, continuous development, and significant societal impact. While it is often underpaid and undervalued compared to fields like medicine or law, the nature of the work and the standards required align strongly with professional criteria.

Here are 20 clear and evidence-based reasons why teaching qualifies as a genuine profession in every meaningful sense of the word.

1. Requires Extensive Specialized Education
   Most countries (including the United States) require a bachelor’s degree + state certification / licensure to teach in public schools. Many positions now demand a master’s degree within a few years. This level of formal preparation is a hallmark of professions.
2. Demands Passing Rigorous Certification Exams
   Teachers must pass subject-area exams, pedagogy tests, and often performance assessments (e.g., edTPA in many U.S. states) before receiving a license—similar to bar exams for lawyers or boards for physicians.
3. Operates Under a Formal Code of Ethics
   Organizations such as the National Education Association (NEA) and Association of American Educators publish and enforce codes of ethics that teachers are expected to follow (confidentiality, fairness, professional conduct, etc.).
4. Requires State or National Licensure / Registration
   Just like doctors, nurses, accountants, and engineers, teachers must hold a valid license issued by the state and renew it periodically through continuing education credits.
5. Involves High Levels of Autonomous Professional Judgment
   Teachers make hundreds of complex, real-time decisions daily: how to differentiate instruction, manage behavior, interpret student data, adjust pacing, choose examples, respond to emotional needs—all without micromanagement in most moments.
6. Requires Ongoing Professional Development
   Most U.S. states mandate 50–150 hours of continuing professional development every 3–5 years to maintain licensure—comparable to continuing medical education (CME) requirements for physicians.
7. Carries Significant Public Accountability & Responsibility
   Teachers are entrusted with the intellectual, emotional, and sometimes physical safety of children. Poor performance can have lifelong consequences—exactly the kind of public trust that defines a profession.
8. Involves Mastery of a Complex, Evidence-Based Body of Knowledge
   Effective teaching draws on pedagogy, child/adolescent psychology, content knowledge, assessment theory, special education law, classroom management research, trauma-informed practice, culturally responsive teaching, and more.
9. Requires Membership in Professional Organizations
   Millions of teachers belong to unions (NEA, AFT), subject-specific groups (NCTM, NSTA, NCTE), honor societies (Phi Delta Kappa, Kappa Delta Pi), and other bodies that set standards and advocate for the field.
10. Features Peer Review & Evaluation Systems
    Most districts use formal observation protocols, peer coaching, and professional learning communities (PLCs) where teachers evaluate and support each other’s practice—similar to medical peer review.
11. Demands Long-Term Commitment & Career Progression
    Teaching has recognized career ladders: novice → proficient → expert → mentor / instructional coach / National Board Certified Teacher / administrator / professor of education.
12. Involves High Emotional & Intellectual Labor
    Teachers manage the emotional climate of 20–35 individuals for 180+ days while simultaneously delivering complex academic content—a combination of caring profession + knowledge profession.
13. Requires Ongoing Reflection & Self-Assessment
    Best-practice teaching includes reflective journaling, lesson study, video analysis of one’s own teaching, and action research—hallmarks of professional self-regulation.
14. Carries Legal & Moral Accountability for Student Outcomes
    Teachers are legally responsible for implementing IEPs, following mandated reporting laws (child abuse/neglect), maintaining accurate records, and delivering instruction that meets state standards.
15. Involves Specialized Language & Concepts
    The field has its own terminology: scaffolding, zone of proximal development, backward design, formative assessment, RTI/MTSS, culturally sustaining pedagogy, executive function, etc.
16. Requires Collaboration with Other Professionals
    Teachers regularly work with school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, counselors, social workers, occupational therapists, and other specialists—interprofessional teamwork typical of professions.
17. Has a Defined Body of Research & Best Practices
    Decades of peer-reviewed research (John Hattie’s Visible Learning, Robert Marzano, Carol Tomlinson, Dylan Wiliam, etc.) guide evidence-based teaching practices.
18. Provides Service to Society Rather Than Pure Profit
    Teaching is a classic “helping profession” oriented toward public good—educating future citizens, reducing inequality, preparing the workforce—rather than maximizing shareholder value.
19. Requires Protection of Client Confidentiality
    Teachers are bound by FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and ethical obligations to protect student privacy—just as doctors are bound by HIPAA.
20. Demands Personal Integrity & Role Modeling
    Society holds teachers to high moral and behavioral standards both in and out of school because they shape children’s values, attitudes, and worldview—a defining trait of trusted professions.

Read 7 Reasons why Employees Leave

Key Takeaways

Teaching meets (and often exceeds) the sociological and practical criteria of a profession:

• prolonged specialized training
• licensure & ethical code
• autonomous judgment
• body of knowledge
• service orientation
• public accountability
• continuous learning

The fact that it is underpaid, under-resourced, and sometimes disrespected does not make it “less” of a profession—it makes it an undervalued one.

If society truly treated teaching with the professional respect given to medicine, law, or engineering, we would see higher salaries, smaller class sizes, more autonomy, better working conditions, and far less turnover.

Until then, the people who choose this profession anyway are among the most dedicated professionals in any field.

They deserve to be called what they are: professionals.