In recent years, the teaching profession has been given increasing attention. In international research, as well as in politics, the teaching profession is now seen as an important facilitator of effective schooling (Day & Sachs, 2004). The image of teachers as reflective, self-determining, life-long learning practitioners with high professional autonomy has been disseminated in the European Union by treaties as Bologna to its members.  National policy makers and also educational scientists adapt such normative descriptions in order to promote the quality of schooling. But they do often not take into account the impact of national and historical contexts on the teaching profession. This leads various results of similar reform efforts and also unintended side effects in different contexts (Steiner-Khamsi, 2010). In order to understand and explain teacher’s work in its context, theoretical concepts are needed which relate the imperatives and constraints of their pedagogical practice to their work in a state-regulated organisation: the schools. The teaching profession is closely related to the context provided by the properties of the school system and its cultural and historical particularities (ibid.). Specifically, a phenomenon can be understood in terms of its context. Time and space are important factors in such comparisons (Novoa & Yariv-Mashal, 2003). Consequently, investigating the teaching profession not only deals with different local per se, but also with the relation of local configurations to their historical-temporal contexts.

The paper will present a theoretical work that combine sociological theories on the nature of professions and an educational approach, curriculum theory, in order to understand and explain teacher’s work in its national context. I will develop a concept which relate the imperatives and constraints of their pedagogical practice to their work in a state-regulated organisation: the schools. The teaching profession is closely related to the context provided by the properties of the school system and its cultural and historical particularities. Specifically, a phenomenon can be understood in terms of its context. Time and space are important factors in such comparisons (Novoa & Yariv-Mashal, 2003). Consequently, investigating the teaching profession not only deals with different local per se, but also with the relation of local configurations to their historical-temporal contexts.

I base my considerations within the field of research on the teaching profession and teacher professionalism and developed a model that makes it possible to compare and relate different forms of the teaching profession in time and space. I emphasize one key aspect of the teaching profession: teachers’ professional autonomy. This aspect highlights a crucial dilemma for teachers: the tension between their work as professional practitioners in the classroom, and their dependence on organizational structures, such as school and curriculum given by state governance (Hopmann, 2003; Hoyle 2008; Terhart, 2001). Professional autonomy can be defined as the scope of action teachers have to react to this dilemma. With respect to autonomy, the contextuality of the profession becomes very obvious, since the dilemma can be handled in various ways, depending on time and space.

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