On Professionalism and Good Intentions: More on Education and Journalism
While journalist Nichole Dobo has not corresponded with me since I posted Dear Journalists Covering Education, Let Me Explain, Dobo has posted a Tweet I believe deserves additional consideration:
@yikesers With all due respect, I do actually know how to be a journalist. It's my profession. @plthomasEdD
— Nichole Dobo (@nicholedobo) January 9, 2016
Dobo’s insistence that her professionalism be respected (which I support fully) raises a key aspect of my concern for how journalists tend to cover education.
Like Dobo, Stephen Sawchuk, a top education journalist for Education Week, bristled at being criticized for education coverage, characterizing the challenges as “pretty offensive.”
Here, then, I am being sincere when I ask: How is the constant and unwarranted drumbeat about “bad teachers,” “failing schools,” and “education crisis” treating educators as professionals? How is the overwhelming lack of seeking teachers and educators as sources in education journalism treating educators as professionals?
Shouldn’t teachers treat journalists as professionals and journalists treat teachers as professionals? Doesn’t our democracy need the professionalism of both journalists and educators?
I taught high school English for about two decades in a rural South Carolina public school, including several years when I also had achieved my doctorate in education while remaining a high school teacher.
During those years, the best I could manage in many efforts to reach into the media were a few letters to the editor.
Once I was in higher education, however, I was given access to Op-Eds as well as frequent interviews by TV and print journalists.
What message does that send?
For both educators and journalists, demanding our professionalism be respected and havingOn Professionalism and Good Intentions: More on Education and Journalism | the becoming radical:
