University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Educational Malpractice and the Professionalization Project around Teaching: A Commentary on the “Jurisdiction” of Teachers

Westbury, Ian

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/105488

Description

Title
Educational Malpractice and the Professionalization Project around Teaching: A Commentary on the “Jurisdiction” of Teachers
Author(s)
Westbury, Ian
Issue Date
2000
Keyword(s)
  • teachers
  • educational malpractice
  • professionalization
  • teachers' duty of care
  • professioanlization
  • educational manpractice
  • duty of care
  • rule of care
  • legal decisions
Geographic Coverage
  • USA
  • England
Abstract
The paper considers the century-old professionalization project around school teaching. Sociologists have contended that a professionalization of an occupation requires the recognition, and acceptance, of an expertise. Using the common-law concepts of negligence and malpractice, that is, failure in a duty of care, the paper examines some English and US legal cases in which there was a claim of educational malpractice. The English courts have accepted that special education teachers could have standards which might be breached, that a failure in a duty of care. US courts have rejected all claims of educational malpractice, in part because they do not want to open a new area for litigation but also because that could find no customary and consensual rules of care among teachers that might be that might be a basis for finding negligence, and thus educational malpractice.
Publisher
Departmen of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki
Series/Report Name or Number
Research Report, No 211
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105488

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