Growing connections – the connected professional

This article reviews research relating to the concept of ‘the professional’ then considers ‘the teaching professional’ and in particular the ‘post-compulsory education (PCE) teaching professional’ in more depth. Recent positive models of the teaching professional are analysed, including the expansive professional and the democratic professional, and a new model from the author’s research is proposed entitled the ‘connected professional’. This draws together a number of key positive components from other models, but also includes a strategy for enacting the model called ‘growing connections’. This is argued to offer a potentially more realisable goal for the future of PCE teaching professionals. The article concludes by offering a set of key characteristics of the PCE teaching professional and calls for adoption of the models offered.