There is the common perception that the teaching practice is not attracting the best and the brightest. This perception resonates in the portrayal of the teaching profession in media and daily conversations as one that is noble, nurturing, sacrificial yet dull, acquiescent and uncritical. This paper examines such perception of teachers as captured from interviews of teachers, students and alumni and analysis of historical records and other secondary materials. It explains the phenomenon through the politics of misrecognition as mediated by history and socio-economic forces. It looks back to the processes of selection and promotion of Filipino teachers undertaken by the Spanish and American colonial teachers. It is also locates the problem to the weak intellectualization of teacher education. Finally it points to the market-driven and standardization discourses that permeate the educational system. Such discourses driven by neoliberal philosophy seek to de-skill and de-professionalize the teachers, reducing them to mere curriculum technicians and transmitters (rather than creators) of knowledge. The misrecognition of teachers’ identity undermines the Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers which demands that part of teachers’ ethical obligation is to act as “intellectual leader in the community” and to engage in knowledge production and expansion. Reclaiming the identity of the teacher-intellectual and the fount of knowledge as exemplified by ancient teacher-philosophers requires going back to the fundamental idea that education as a contemporary practice is rooted on social sciences, not only informed by Psychology, but also Philosophy, Sociology and Anthropology. Given such frame, this paper recommends that a continuing dialogical and productive relationship be established between teachers and social scientists. It also recommends reframing education as a localized and contextual practice.

1. Ched Arzadon
College of Education, UP Diliman
Conference on Values and Moral Education 2014, College of
Education, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

2.  Teachers poor esteem
 Popular notions
 EDCOM report
 Test results
 Some explanations
 History of Phil Education
 Salary and respect
 De-skilling and de-professionalization of teachers
 Teacher-intellectuals

3. “dammeg met, ag-maestra laengen”
portrayal of the teaching profession in
media and daily conversations as one
that is noble yet dull, acquiescent and
uncritical

4. A teacher’s reaction to a
criticism about the “slowness”
of public school teachers:
It is not about how intelligent
you are but how did you affect
the life of your student... I would
rather love a slow teacher with
high EQ than a smart and
intelligent teacher who have low
EQ.....we aspire for wisdom and
not intelligence...I am proud of
those hardworking teachers..

5. the “quality of Philippine Education is
declining” and the teachers are “at the
heart of the problem”
Teachers are poorly trained;
Not attracting the best and brightest among
high school graduates
Teaching is perceived as a poorly esteemed
profession.

6. Kura Paroko’s choice - most obedient and
prayerful
Thomasite’s replica – teachers subjected to
tongue twisting exercises
New Society’s mouthpiece
Revolutionary leaders
School reformers

7.  Decreased state support
 Proliferation of private teacher education institutions (now 65%), most of which are
poorly funded
 1950s - 1960s: teacher education, biggest enrollment; one out of three students at the
collegiate level was enrolled in teacher education.
 1970s-80s – sharp decline of enrollment. low prestige accorded to teachers. Teacher
education created a negative image as the "easiest course . . . and the dumping ground
for those who could not make it to the other professions." (Task Force to Study State
Higher Education 1987, cited in Savellano)

9.  Out of 1,025 TEIs
for elementary, 59%
did not reach the
national passing
rate.
 63% of TEIs for
secondary.
 Most (68%) of these
are private schools.

11.  1992- 1995 : 24%
 2009 – 2013 :
 First time takers: 54%
 Repeaters – 16%
 2014 (August)
 elementary teachers - 35.74%
 secondary teachers - 34.40%

13.  the teacher as a professional vs. the teacher as implementer of prescribed
curricula
 the teacher as a creative and innovative expert vs. the teacher bound by
bureaucratic rules;
 the teacher as a nationalist vs. the teacher in a school system dependent on
Western theories

14. Teachers Code of Ethics Article III Sec 6:
Every teacher is intellectual leader in the community, especially in the
barangay, and shall welcome the opportunity to provide such leadership
when needed
The teaching practice is applied social science/philosophy
requires continuing engagement/dialogue between
educators and social science/philosophy scholars so they
can freely theorize, critique, create new knowledge
Lack of such continuing dialogues and engagements
between social scientists/philosophers and teachers in the
history of teacher education

15. Masyadong backward, yung level of discourse, intellectualization
of the discipline, napaka traditional, puro kacheapan lang,
walang ibinigay na bago, natali sa 70s! Napaka slow ng
development, sana kung nag-indigenize sila pero hindi naman
ginagawa yun. Ano ang excuse mo? There was a failure to
theorize and intellectualize… UP should be at the center of
intellectual development…. Ipapabasa sa iyo si Bernstein, 80s pa
yan! Montessori… Rosseau…Pang Soc Sci 2 ito. Dapat abante na.
-graduate student at the College of
Education

16.  Centralized planning: Exclusion of teachers in educational planning has result
to de-skilling; deprofessionalization (Henry Giroux)
 Teachers are provided all sorts of teachers guides
 Teachers are reduced to being implementers or curriculum technicians
“No memo, no action”
“Echoing” “cascading”
“let’s just adapt this”
Teachers framed as “dull, compliant,
uncritical” necessary to sustain further
standardization and external control by the
the experts (state and the market)

17.  Executive Order 811
 2009 - P14,198 ($325)
 2010 - P15,649 ($359)
 2011 - P17,099 ($392)
 2012 – P18,549 ($425) – Salary Grade 11
 Proposals
 Legarda – P25,000 (SG 15)
 Angara – P33,800 (SG 19)
 Magdalo Party List – P36,000 (SG 20)

18.  Singaporean (highest average salary in the world) —close to US$4,000 a month
(around US$45,755 a year)
 Malaysia - US$2,200 a month
 Indonesia - US$1,400 a month
 These exclude various perks and performance incentives.
 Philippines – US 430

19. Teacher
Status Index
Ranking
2013 Global
Teacher Status
Index
*Phils –USD
5,000

20. Successful school systems have a number of things in common:
 they find culturally effective ways to attract the best people to the
profession; (Ex South Korea – top 5%; Finland –top 10%)
 they provide relevant, ongoing training;
 they give teachers a status similar to that of other respected
professions;
 system sets clear goals and expectations but also provides teacher
autonomy
 higher salaries, on the other hand, accomplish little by themselves.
(The Learning Curve 2012)

22. Teaching beyond…
o“best practices” & “effectiveness”
obeing overworked underpaid worker
otransmissive pedagogy
ofetishism over western concepts
oIsolation from social sciences/philosophy
Education as an act of freedom, a site for
knowledge creation, social critique and
transformation

24. Dios iti agngina!
mearzadon@upd.edu.ph