Teaching is both a vocation and profession. Indeed teaching has many challenges, however, only the one with the real passion of teaching and becoming an effective educator will survive in this field. I took up teaching as i love to learn and wanted to lead students to enjoy learning. Teaching is also a profession in ways such as upgrading our skills, knowledge, understanding. We live in a world that moves fast towards development and changes, thus, it does not mean the world only changes, peoples mindset changes, peoples beahviour and attitude changes to better suit their environment, therefore, we must be ready to face these changes and teach accordingly.
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It is a bit of a grey area for me. Teaching in most part is a vocation. Before becoming a teacher I was inspired by my own high school teachers and relatives who were teachers. Teaching is certainly a calling and you need to be able to connect with your students to get the best out of them and impart knowledge and skills. You also need to be empathetic yet firm. For those who have taught in rural and even urban schools in Fiji would know part of our fortnightly wages goes to creating teaching resources or to carry out class activities or help students who canāt afford to go on a fieldtrip. That is where I see it a calling where we are to encourage learning and a sense of community.
On the other hand teaching can be referred to as a profession where teachers need to be of a certain caliber and standard with relevant qualifications in education. Ensuring majority of students pass the national exams. Even people treat you in a different manner with high regard and respect in the community. It is funny looking back we had to wait to head into to Suva to let our hair down during the school breaks- if we hadnāt committed ourselves to sporting events or school tours.
Simply, I became a teacher because I wanted to teach high school geography and to help children in rural areas, also it seemed like it was the only career path with my degree after graduatingā¦
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Well said, @eqelo.
Once a teacher, always a teacher!
A Big Vinaka to all the teachers for taking the time to sharpen our āteachingā skills.
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I think teaching is a profession and vocation. To be skilled and knowledgeable in an area of expertise, one acquires certificates and degrees. In order to make our world knowledgeable and independent, one has to be knowledgeable, skilled and experienced to be successful in this profession. So profession has become vocation.
Good to see you here Deepak! 
A teacher is a profession, but teaching is a vocation. being a teacher i believe teaching is a vocation because as experience grow the love for the profession also grows with joy. thinking how lucky being a teacher able to share varieties and abundance of knowledge to the kids. its so privileged.
In my opinion, teaching is a vocation, itās a calling. It requires kindness, discipline, a lot of patience and the ability to empathize. Initially I joined the profession because I was pressured by my Mum, who was also a teacher. After the first 2 years of teaching, I realized that teaching was a calling for me. To get a smile of satisfaction from a student, or a nod of understanding is simply gratifying.
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Personally, I think teaching is both a profession and a vocation. Becoming a teacher requires us to go through certain years of training whereby we acquire the proper skills and knowledge (vocation) so that we can be a teacher(profession). This being achieved, we can now be able to teach children of different learning abilities. However, a teacher is a profession/ a career that one can choose. On the other hand, teaching is a vocation because we as teachers teach skills so that students can be a successful person in terms of their career path.
I joined the vocation for 2 reasons. 1) I grew up in a family of teachers and watching these teachers inspired me to be a teacher. 2) I developed the desire and the passion to become a teacher at a younger age.
In my opinion, teaching is a profession. As students we enjoy learning and on the other hand professors and teachers share their knowledge and experiences through teaching us. So in terms of education, teaching is a profession.
Teaching is a profession in the primary school perspective as we teach students in all subject areas and changes into vocation when they reach secondary school level as they choose subjects of their career choices then to universities. I joined the teaching profession as I loved to work with children.
From definitions in literature (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/profession#, Vocation - Wikipedia etc.) and the two positions explained by colleagues already, Iām of the opinion that teaching is both a profession and a vocation. Definitions using the word āoccupationā for both also show their similarity. I think, weāll be talking more about how we engage in it for far-reaching outcomes.
While one needs sound relevant training to have requisite skills to be a teacher, one needs passion to enter and do teaching. Passion is rarely an output of training. It drives someone to labour on in extreme difficulties and doesnāt make room for boredom, because someone is centred on making impact with their skills (as ashwin.govindan agreeably revealed) NOT on making a living (which is the focus of so many professionals). This is my strongest motivation for going into teaching and training, which I donāt believe Iāll relinquish for anything else; at worst, Iāll do them alongside.
I also agree with @mackiwg and @geeta.krishna that teaching is an art. One is always enthusiastic about and engrossed in oneās art.
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When I started working 20 years ago, I viewed teaching as the last profession I would have chosen after having exhausted all my other options. Nevertheless, every job opportunity I was involved in made me realise that I had a passion to teach and help others. As English was my second language, I was able to communicate with colleagues from a diverse ethnic background. This was a vocation pathway for me.
As a tertiary educator, I joined the related profession as an opportunity to share my skills, knowledge and experiences with potential Pacific leaders.
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Hi, Loata,
You raised a perspective interesting to me. Could you throw more light? Is it that the less number of choices learners have to make of subjects and careers, the less professional teaching is?
Sereima, do you agree that your mum was well aware of the fulfillment and knew it would be good you get it, too? 
I believe teaching for many individuals came as a vocation first and then to formalize āthe callingā, the individual ventures out for training to gain more knowledge and skills, acquire a Certificate, belong to the teaching profession and do what they love best - to teach and teach. So in my opinion, teaching is a vocation as well as a profession.
I joined the vocation because of my love for teaching from an early age. My role models and motivators were my primary school teachers - an excellent and hard working group of professionals. I knew that it was a calling for me and all I had to do was work and study hard to join a teacher institution and be included in the respectable teaching profession. I had never regretted my decision and it is still a joy to be impacting the lives of children and adults in a positive way. #courses:ds4oers
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You raised a good point there when you said that you chose the vocation because you had family members who were already teachers. It would be true for some as well - having a family member or 2 who are already in the profession can inspire one to follow the same.
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I believe teaching is a calling that needs intensive training. I cannot dwell on teaching as a vocation when I donāt have the expertise on how to carry it out. I believe vocation and profession in teaching work hand in hand rather than looking at it as separate issues. I use the training in teaching to enhance my calling.
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Yes, teaching is a vocation as it requires one to constantly upgrade their skills with the current trends in the industry, and this can only be achieved through training and personal development. Teachers should become lifelong learners so that they remain relevant at all times
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Teaching is a vocation because it entails a lot of sacrifice and also you have to put so much love in everything you do.
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For me, teaching is first a profession then added with passion and so it becomes a vocation. The skills and principles we learned from our training days will give us the profession but it is later on when we begin practicing and watching lives being molded for the better that we gain a better understanding of this noble profession- that it takes more than what we are equipped for in order to make teaching worth doing. For teaching also requires our devotion to what and whom we teach in order to make a difference in someoneās life. Thus, I regard it not only a noble profession but also a worthy vocation.
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