Fixing the Identity of "Teachers"

"By saying that teachers are professionals, we fix the identity of the "teacher"...I am not saying that teachers are not professionals, nor am I saying that teaching should not be a profession. I am saying, however, that we need to trouble the commensensical notion that increasing the professionalization of teaching will help to address oppressions in schools and society. After all, there are many ways to define groups of "teachers," and different defintions can lead to different changes" (16). 

In response to the above quote, I'm struck by how frequently we group teachers, students, and all the members of a community into one distinct entity, as though any person truly "belongs" in a single group. Grouping people by profession seems so strange because we often have no idea of the motive, passion, or level of agency a person had in entering that profession. We don't know the degree to which a teacher even agrees with everything they are asked to do within their profession. If we were to ask every teacher we've ever had, "why did you become a teacher? Why did you choose this profession?" the answers would surely differ. Tension arises, however, when a profession (like teaching) so clearly has the potential to address oppression. If we subscribe to a belief that teaching can transform and challenge the status quo, how should we react to the reality that some within the profession potentially aren't interested in this aspect of the "job." I absolutely want to think more about the benefits and drawbacks to fixing the identity of any whole group of people, especially "teachers."