*4.1. Proto-Professionals*

The term proto-professionals has been coined here to indicate that this quadrant is often home to professionals at the earliest stages of their careers, for example newly qualified graduates of university courses which are approved by professional bodies. In the present century, these early entrants have been joined by those recruited via less regulated conceptions of professional preparation. This approach has been developed in respect of governments' attempts to create 'fast track' routes for graduates of any discipline, such as Teach First and Step Up to Social Work in the UK, welcoming these entrants as innovators, often in times of personnel shortages, and adjusting (lowering) the required entry standards and competences to ease their way. In the US and in England, for example, graduates may enter the teaching profession via non-university routes to work, often as Zeichner's *short-term technician teachers*, *of other people's children* [29]**,** supported by the view that teaching does not require highly specialized knowledge and skills [30]. This change in locus of teacher education from the universities to schools has been coupled with the development of more rigidly defined school curricula which may be formulaically 'delivered' in a lower tier education system by what Pring calls 'deliverologists' [31]. Giroux contrasts this with the value of an informed and critical professionalism, asserting that there is a danger of teachers "erasing themselves in an uncritical reproduction of received wisdom" (p. 20, [32]). An even more dystopian view sees the prescribed competences of technicist professionals being, in future, e ffortlessly 'delivered', not by humans, but by AI-controlled robots that continuously learning and do not ever tire – although electronic components may break or become infected with viruses.

Clarke [14] describes "the most egregious example of 'training', as opposed to 'education', is perhaps those teachers who are being trained to carry and use concealed weapons in US schools" Alternatively she suggests teachers might be educated (as opposed to trained) "instead seek to combat the systems which produce inequality, poverty and powerlessness for their pupils and hinder their chances of accessing the most elite professions" [14]. In this context she also mentions "teachers who subvert bureaucracy for their students by giving undue help with coursework/exams (see 'unprofessionals') might be seen as a more extreme case of this—in this case, relying on subverting bureaucracy". Finally she notes, "the proto-professional quadrant may thus be viewed as either an early transit point for some professionals, or as the career-long settlement for others, less 'well-travelled' on their learning journey, who remain here because they see this as a comfortable and unchallenging home-for-life, perhaps as a local hero but with few connections and challenges beyond the local".

## *4.2. No Place for Professional Nobodies*

This component, where the answer to the question, 'Who is my professional today?' is 'No one', lies outside the axes of the Model. It is, however, indispensable to understanding the place of professionals not least because it poses an increasingly important, existential question for the professions: are professionals a necessity or a luxury, or are they replaceable by either para-professionals or by the ubiquitous, ever-learning potential of AI? For the purposes of this essay, only those who are 'qualified' professionals are deemed to be professionals. This point is both fundamental and highly contested, for it is clear that for many professions there may not be national, never mind international, agreemen<sup>t</sup> as to the requisite qualifications. This issue presents a significant lacuna not least because it has been the gap though which marketization has sought to break the mold of professions via the increasing deregulation which is mostly occurring in the world's wealthiest nations. In the poorest places, meanwhile, many millions of people have no access to professionals at all.

This part of the Model resonates with the arguments of those who assert that mandatory qualifications are redolent of credentialism, are inflexible and ultimately superfluous. The growing impact of marketization in recent years has led to a growth of a second tier of para-professional roles; requiring fewer qualifications, greater flexibility and lower costs; temporary jobs attracting lower salaries but increasingly fulfilling some of the roles which were hitherto the responsibility of qualified, permanent professionals. Such jobs are attractive to applicants because the entry tari ffs are not as high as those for professions while the role may attract at least some of the esteem of the professions, as the job titles imply: Associate Physician and Teaching Assistant. In addition, there has been an increase in numbers and an extension of the roles of volunteers in public sector roles. In the UK, this has been particularly notable in public libraries where the negative impacts on the erosion of expertise, care of state-funded resources and the quality of service (particularly in poorer areas where long-term volunteers can be harder to recruit) are becoming more evident, as pointed out by the Scottish Libraries and Inflation Council [33]. Busy professionals may be all too happy to shed some of their more mundane responsibilities to these new minions. The minions, however, may find that they have, for now, undertaken the clearly defined, repetitive types of job roles which are most replaceable by AI. From the perspective of the laity, para-professionals, volunteers and AI may improve access to some services and may even lead to innovation and personalization, but they can eventually create two-tier systems, with the poorest able only to access the services of the least expert and least trustworthy, while the most expert and most trustworthy in any field are available only to the wealthy—exclusive professionals (see below).

UNESCO (the United Nations, Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) reported on the enormous global disparities in the nature of schools and schooling which mean that 57 million primary school age children lack a teacher [34]. Lack of teachers has a knock-on impact on all other professions and similarly huge deficits are found in other professions. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) report, *A universal truth: No health without a workforce* [35], estimated that the world will be short of 12.9 million health-care workers by 2035; today, that figure already stands at 7.2 million.

## *4.3. Precarious Professionals*

The next section moves back within the axes of the Place Model, to the quadrant occupied by the most 'precarious professionals' (akin to Standing's precariat) [36] who have low esteem, low levels of expertise and/or trustworthiness, and short career spans. This quadrant is home to disparate types including those who might be described as 'unprofessional'), and those who are unlikely to remain in the profession, the 'transitory'. Both occupy precarious positions and both frequently reach the headlines—for very di fferent reasons.

Clarke [14] notes how The Place Model's unprofessionals pose some key questions for professional educators to ask their students about why and how and by whom they might be registered, access checked and 'struck o ff'. Despite these (often inadequate) checks, there are many and varied instances of unprofessional behavior right across the globe, sometimes with fatal consequences. They severely dent the credibility of professionals across a wide range of fields, who may be seen as culpable for the catastrophes while being exclusively protected from the consequences. Acting at their most eponymous, professional bodies often profess codes of accountability, sometimes even encapsulated in professional oaths of conduct, based on the values and competences of their profession, against which such cases are judged. Many of these are locally designed versions of internationally agreed codes such as the Declaration of Geneva for the medical professions [37]. However, at the heart of these codes there is an increasingly paradoxical lack of candor: despite the increasingly pervasive and distorting e ffects of the markets, and of performativity measures, none of these codes declare that their profession is ambitious to make as much money as possible, or to subvert bureaucracy and fabricate evidence of competence and achievements, for example. Newly graduated professionals declaring their oaths may sound heartwarmingly virtuous, and no doubt many are genuinely invested in these statements, at the time, but the realities of human frailties and the influence of a marketized and bureaucratized world may soon override such aspirations to virtue. Squaring the circle of duty and ethics is still most glaringly illustrated in the long-standing issues of doctors who assist with carrying out capital punishments. In more recent years, the challenges of ensuring morality within AI are increasing and are, in Katwala's words, as ye<sup>t</sup> poorly understood [23].

The other exemplar occupants of this quadrant are the low status, poorly educated professionals for whom job security remains a persistent and stressful problem, where professionals are often badly paid, inadequately supported, and held in such low regard that many are forced to consider other career options. The casualization of contracts is widespread, not least in the academic sector where fee-paying students expect that they are buying access to established rather than ad hoc 'expertise'. Many of today's academics are malleable components of flexible labor markets. Many of their predecessors had tenure.

## *4.4. The De-Professionalized*

In creating the Place Model, this quadrant seemed the most interesting and challenging—if it were on an old mariners' map it might be even be labelled '*here be dragons'*—home to more established professionals who have completed a significant part of their professional learning journey, but with a relative deficit of status.

This quadrant is the locus of at least three contrasting sets of examples: the cynics whose sarcastic words and attitudes can discourage professionals and laity alike, those senior professionals who have been consigned to this place by denigration, including those cast aside following 'one mistake', and migrant/refugee professionals who find themselves deemed 'unqualified' and unemployable in their destination country.

Members of the first group might be seen, at their worst, to have repositioned themselves within the Place Model. Cynicism can be much simpler than more open-minded skepticism—turning one's back in vitriolic despair in response to the failed inspection, rather than raising a critical eyebrow and fighting back. McDermott's paper in this special issue discusses this matter. The senior social workers who worked to try to protect Baby P in the UK are in this quadrant too, but not for reasons of cynicism. When the baby died, the head of Children's Services at Haringey was 'named and shamed' by a senior minister in the House of Commons and removed from post [38]**.** When things go wrong, when mistakes are made, it is often the most senior members of professions who end up being held accountable, sometimes only within the privacy of internal accountability processes, sometimes very publicly indeed with additional vilification via the rabid tabloid press. The further impacts of this case have been on social worker retention and recruitment, on increasing numbers of babies removed from their parents, and on increasing demands for social care at a time of budget cutting austerity. In healthcare contexts, consequences can readily be much more severe; just one mistake can be fatal to patients and also to careers, and the threats of ruinously expensive litigation can encourage coverups. In Northern Ireland's health service, rules for a *duty of candor* are being drawn up following a major public enquiry [39] and The Doctors' Association in the UK (DAUK) has introduced a *learn not*

*blame* initiative [40]. There is a growing recognition that much medical fault finding is wasteful and deeply damaging and would be better utilized as a positive learning resource. This can be a di fficult message for those harmed and requires the most persistent, eloquent and wise sponsors in order to gain public support.

The problems associated with this quadrant seem destined to expand following statutory increases in the length of teachers' working lives in most countries. In England and Wales, Sikes (p. 27, [41]) believes that maintaining professional vigor seems destined to be a particular challenge where the "ageing of members is likely to assume increasing significance for the cultures, ethos and outcomes of schools".

This quadrant may also be considered to be the locus of those migrant and refugee professionals who find that their previous qualifications and experience count for little in their new state, even though it may have shortages in key fields. In 2017, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that 68.5 million people around the world have been forced from home [42]. Among them are nearly 25.4 million refugees and over 80 percent of these are living in economically less developed countries. Perennial arguments around exclusive protectionism in professions versus the wage lowering potential of an influx of new professionals are played out, often *soto voce*, in the common-rooms and committees of professional bodies where the challenges of designing and funding appropriate Continuing Professional Development highlight the importance of delineating, maintaining and communicating the profession's external thresholds and its internal ideals, its distinctive strengths and its singular contribution to the world.

## *4.5. The Professionals*

Thus far, this exploration of professionals using the Place Model has largely pointed towards what an ideal professional *is not,* a vision of multiple dystopias which are partly the by-products of professions themselves and sometimes of the impacts of the other logics. By contrast, the Place Model frames the professionals as being progressively expert and trustworthy, highly esteemed exemplars for new entrants to the professions. This quadrant of the Model is home to a profession's champions, standard bearers, pioneers, leaders and appraisers. Meeting one's idols is, however, a risky business—as Flaubert [43] notes, the gold paint tends to come o ff on your fingers. These super-trustworthy experts are fallible humans too—which can o ffer the hope that becoming such a hero is, perhaps, an accessible ambition.

## 4.5.1. Exclusive Professionals

Dystopia is also found even in this quadrant of the Place Model, not least because some of those at the top of professions may be surrounded by boundaries of exclusivity which are patrolled by Cerberus-like personal assistants, by expensive educations which act as what Kynaston and Green call *engines of privilege* [44], by prohibitive fees, by cut-glass accents and expensive tailoring, or, less tangibly, by an assiduously cultivated aura of godlike inapproachability, which may appear just as insurmountable as any physical barrier. These exclusive professionals often live longer and retain exclusive power longer. Professional education tutors might ask their students to consider critically their highest ambitions**:** where do they want to go within this most senior quadrant of the Place Model? Seniority is one thing, but they might also be challenged to consider if they intend to serve the rich and powerful, the sophisticated and eloquent, the hygienic and sweet-smelling, while presenting a variety of barriers to others.

The growth of AI has not been deterred by these boundaries. An AI surgeon will have the capacity to assimilate and synthesize all of the case notes of every piece of surgery ever performed, as well as the most intricate details of a specific patient's medical history, will have the steadiest and most hygienic of 'hands', will not tire or become distracted, and may be chosen by a patient in preference to the most eminent of human surgeons. Aggrieved litigants and eagle-eyed managers (often fearing litigation) may seek to ensure that accountability mechanisms are used to remove (professionalize) any surgeon who commits any error. Increasingly, therefore, such exclusive professionals are somewhat less unassailable than they have been to date. Increasingly surrounded, squeezed and encapsulated by the forces of markets, bureaucracy and AI, these top professionals are less likely to rise to their most crucial challenge: using their extensive expertise not to subvert the markets and bureaucracy, not to out-robot robots**,** but rather to out-human them in curiosity, care and creativity as inclusive professionals.

## 4.5.2. Inclusive Professional: Utopia or Oxymoron?

Like the exclusive professionals, this final category within the Place Model combines high levels of trustworthiness with the capacity to connect local practice and the latest global expertise. The flaw, however, perhaps the fatal flaw in the notion of inclusive professionals, is that it may be that, as Sandel [45] comments, in a market society, exclusivity is absolutely essential to professionals in cornering their market, thus making inclusive professions impossible—a utopian oxymoron. Interestingly, Thomas More's concept of Utopia affords places for both utopias and oxymorons—in the original Greek, utopia may mean either 'good place' or 'no place' [46].

The discussion might end here, if it were not for the reality in which many professionals do, in fact, overcome this oxymoron. While inhabiting a world increasingly dominated by markets and bureaucracy, where AI is also more pervasive, less transparent and insufficient in some important human capabilities, many professionals' expertise and trustworthiness are not for sale, not solely motivated and subverted by ticking boxes, not replaceable by AI. This essay concludes with an attempt to push open the door to a discussion of the possibilities and impossibilities of inclusive professionals.

Most importantly, the place of the inclusive professional might be seen to include the entire map of the Place Model (dystopias and all) which has been created to imagine a more commodious, polysemous understanding of professional. It might be argued that as fallible humans, all professionals have the potential to embody all/many of the components of the model, sometimes several within one day.

Inclusion begins with recruitment into the proto-professional quadrant where most people enter a profession. One hundred percent inclusion is not possible and is only viable at all with the removal of the well documented structural barriers to recruitment: wealth and social class, gender, sexual orientation and race. Realistically, however, professions are still seen as desirable, scarce resources and are thus prey to the perennial sharpening of elbows, (a seemingly incurable, if understandable malaise), starting with the parents of even the younges<sup>t</sup> school pupils, a phenomenon which is tied to market**i**zation and which, therefore, may be impossible to prevent completely. All professions declare an interest in widening access. Only some succeed to only some extent.

By contrast, the influence of proactively inclusive professionals can be brought to bear right across the Place Model, through the professional bodies which sanction and judiciously (but not wantonly) remove the unprofessionals, in providing mentorship and supporting the learning of peers and proto-professionals, even across national borders in institutional twinning projects or individual one-to-one assistance which aims to supplement or surpass traditional aid projects in the poorest places. Welcoming professions can also reach out within their own localities by seeking to educate the laity about the unvarnished realities their roles: *The Guardian's* '*What I'm really thinking*' column [47], for example, allows practitioners to share candidly the view from their side of the desk/scalpel/book/keyboard/bench. Such pragmatic outreach allows professionals to share in, navigate to (and learn in) places which supersede the constraints of markets and bureaucracy, but may (in reality) be viewed as damaging to the market-cornering potential of professions. This might be further compromized if the professional oaths of inclusive professionals were to explicitly preclude acting on the basis of individual or corporate greed and admit, for example, the reality that even the most extraordinarily talented and dedicated people make mistakes—it is how professionals learn, in response, that matters. The inclusive professional is inarguably a more ambitious outcome of what humanity is capable of than an individualistic survival-of-the-fittest based on markets and constantly monitored and managed by bureaucrats—which might be seen as a pervasive underestimation of

humanity. Barack Obama, speaking to *Wired Magazine* [48]**,** made an important observation about the future of professionals in the context of more widespread but never fully ubiquitous AI. He predicted that the totem pole of professional status will be upended and that the most human, caring and creative professionals, those who are often underpaid today (teachers, nurses, caregivers, and those in the arts) will, in future, be better understood and more highly esteemed for the universality of their trustworthy expertise.
