Higher education between opposite tendencies of new occupationalism and civic and public professionalism

Higher education in contemporary society is drawn towards occupationalism/vocationalism and professionalism by two opposite tendencies. This article, with distinguishing two concepts of occupation and profession, studies the roots of occupationalism and professionalism in modern era and their relations to higher education. After this conceptual review, the effects of changes in the final decades of the twentieth century on shaping the two phenomena of new occupationalism/ new vocationalism and new professionalism are examined. In knowledge society and with forming of knowledge-based employment, professionalism or normative and communicative natures of professionals with their jobs have been transformed and these transformations resulted to the emergence of new professionalism. This article wishes to inquiry different dimensions of new professionalism and to study consequences of this concept for social organization and cognitive content of professions in close future. Therefore, concepts of new professionalism and politics of professionalism and its relevant models, namely the ecological model of professionalism, transformative professionalism, democratic professionalism and civic professionalism, are set forth. Finally, a four-aspect model of professionalism with dimensions of academic professionalism, critical professionalism, market and policy professionalism, and public professionalism is discussed.The conclusion of the paper has focused on the importance of new professionalism as opposed to new vocationalism. Under the influences of new necessities of economic globalization, challenges and needs of labor market, formation of knowledge-based economy, increasing the rate of unemployment and development of Post-Fordism economy, new vocationalism threatens education with growth of mechanical procedures, utilitarianism, mere quantificationism, and makes educated persons face the development of uncritical, one-dimensional approach and technicianism and the result is forgetting science and profession as a set of personal, inter-personal, social and political values. This article assumed it necessary for the educational plans and curriculums to reform at different level of education including higher education in the line of combination of general education with emphasis on humanistic and civic values and vocational education with emphasis on job values responding to multiply needs including balance-making between work and life, culture and knowledge. The final section of this article includes specific strategies for developing new professionalism especially in human sciences disciplines with a special focus on the promotion of relations between professionals and the publics.