Teachers’ expressions of craft conscience: upholding the integrity of a profession

How can teachers who quit claim to be dedicated to upholding the integrity of the profession? Paradoxically, and not without costs, leaving teaching may be an expression of an educator’s professional ethics. This investigation applies insights from A.O. Hirschman’s Exit, Voice and Loyalty to the context of teaching in order to reveal the expressions of professional ethics in teachers’ resignation letters. These concerns constitute what Thomas Green calls ‘craft conscience.’ Using philosophical inquiry and document analysis, I examine 15 publicly available teacher resignation letters from the United States that were published on the internet between 2012 and 2014 to examine the pedagogical, professional, and democratic components of craft conscience.