Re: Professionalism

[csjhs@eiu.edu (Jeanne H. Simpson)]

Jim

I think you've raised an interesting question.  Certainly Sara is right
that we need to define "professional" before we can get very far. I'd also
suggest that how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us may not
match overmuch. 

Traditionally, professional has meant that 
*a specialized preparation is necessary (e.g, law school, medical school,
seminary)and is recognized by both practitioners and by laypersons as
being necessary
*there is a degree of self-regulation with regard to this preparation
*there is a set of ethical expectations articulated by the practitioners

There may be other elements too--these are just 3 I have thought of in a
few minutes.

By this definition, I'd say we have the first item, but we tend to
recognize it among ourselves. Laypersons (administrators especially) do
not necessarily recognize it.  

We have the bare beginnings of self-regulation insofar as we are urging
that writing center work does require special preparation (though we
haven't yet defined what that should be, exactly), but there is nothing
approaching a standard, recognized by ourselves or by others, yet.
We have NWCA and the regionals, which could be considered as
very roughly equivalent to the American Bar Association or the AMA.

We have vigorous discussions about our ethical expectations, but not an
articulated set.

One of the reasons I have urged us to look at an accreditation system is
precisely for this reason--it will strengthen our ability to claim to be
professionals by giving us a set of standards (which should be both
flexible and yet convincingly rigorous).

Initial thoughts...  Jim? Sara?  Others?

Jeanne Simpson
csjhs@eiu.edu