By Prof K Pushpanadham and Ashok K Pandey
Every year on September 5 we celebrate Teachers’ Day with flowers, speeches, and social media tributes. We acknowledge the profession, applaud the commitment, and thank those who shaped our lives.
Yet we rarely ask a question. Is teaching merely a profession, or is there something deeper that defines a teacher? We use words such as ‘motherhood’, ‘fatherhood’, ‘brotherhood’, and ‘neighbourhood’ to signify more than these relationships and roles. They evoke a way of being, shaped by responsibility, compassion, care, and enduring commitment. ‘Education’ too has such a word, but we have not sufficiently explored its deeper meaning: teacherhood.
From profession to identity
Teaching is an occupation; teacherhood is a way of being. One can be employed as a teacher without necessarily embodying teacherhood. Some of the greatest teachers in our lives may never have held a teaching certificate. A grandparent, a coach, a colleague, or even a stranger can share lessons that shape one’s life forever. Teacherhood is the evolving professional and human identity through which knowledge, character, care, ethical responsibility, and purpose come together in the service of the learner.
The ethics of care
Teacherhood carries within it acceptance, patience, and care. Unlike many professions, teaching rarely offers immediate rewards. The teacher may never know which conversation changed a child’s life or which word planted the seed of confidence. Teacherhood continues nevertheless, like planting a tree whose shade someone else will enjoy.
Teacherhood in the Indian tradition
Indian civilisation never saw the teacher merely as an instructor. The guru illuminated rather than informed. Teacherhood in the Indian tradition can be understood through four interconnected ideas: dṛṣṭi, the vision that guides education; jñāna, the pursuit of knowledge; dharma, commitment to the learner and society; and prayojana, the larger purpose education ultimately serves. Krishna did not fight Arjuna’s battle for him. He helped restore the clarity with which Arjuna could make his own choice. Teacherhood, in a sense, is the awakening of consciousness.
Why teacherhood matters today
In an age when artificial intelligence can explain concepts, solve equations, and generate essays within seconds, information is no longer scarce. But human formation is. Schools will be remembered more for how deeply they shape character, judgement, empathy, and purpose than for how efficiently they deliver content. Technology may share the work of teaching. It cannot assume the responsibility of teacherhood.
A call for a national conversation
Instead of asking “How do we prepare better teachers?”, we should ask, “How do we nurture teacherhood?” Teacher education must develop competence and cultivate compassion, ethical imagination, humility, curiosity, and the courage to believe in every learner. Teacherhood also requires teachers to see themselves as leaders whose influence extends beyond the classroom to the school and the community. Competencies make a teacher effective. Teacherhood gives those competencies direction, conscience, and purpose.
This Teachers’ Day, we honour those who stand before our classrooms. We should also celebrate something less visible but infinitely more enduring. Every great teacher embodies teacherhood as a calling. A teacher completes the syllabus. Teacherhood begins where the syllabus ends.
Prof Pushpanadham is head, Dept of Educational Administration, MSU Baroda, and Ashok K Pandey is Mentor-in-Residence, GEMS U40 Initiative, Mumbai
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of Financial Express.