Semiprofession

A semiprofession, as opposed to a true profession, refers to a type of work similar in some respects to those commonly regarded as professional but still different in more than a few important areas. One group especially tied to this emerging term, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), published a list of twelve checkpoints they believe help define said neologism.

# Lower in occupational status
# Shorter training periods
# Lack of societal acceptance that the nature of the service and/or the level of expertise justifies the autonomy that is granted to the professions
# A less specialized and less highly developed body of knowledge and skills
# Markedly less emphasis on theoretical and conceptual bases for practice
# A tendency for the individual to identify with the employment institution more and with the profession less
# More subject to administrative and supervisory surveillance and control
# Less in professional decision making, with accountability to superiors rather than to the profession
# Management by persons who have themselves been prepared and served in that semiprofession
# A preponderance of women
# Absence of the right of privileged communication between client and professional
# Little or no involvement in matters of life and death

The use of comparative adverbs such as "more" and "less" is indicative of an evaluation of the semiprofessional life against that of the true professional. It is therefore important to establish which careers we are using as standards by which to judge aspiring professions. This exemplar can be found in the two occupations which are widely regarded to be true professions, those in the fields of law and medicine. Noting the publisher of the checklist printed above, those in the educational field are perhaps themselves wrestling with whether their line of work can be considered professional, or is perhaps something more closely resembling a semiprofession.