Codes, creeds, oaths and community: Teaching and professional ethos

This inquiry uses philosophical methods to examine the following question: how can thinking about how the medical profession's Hippocratic Oath functions as a professional ethos, specifically as an example of epideictic discourse, inform our thinking about the ethical core or professional philosophy of teaching? Sub-questions include: what constructs are currently employed in education that serve a shared sense of purpose, standard, or value? Do these devices meet the criteria of "professional ethos," and if not, how are they suited for the task of providing a conceptual and philosophical touchstone for the profession and society at large? Is consensus on these matters possible, and how would it be achieved? If in other fields, why not education?;This inquiry provides three examples of devices we have in education, how those devices do not meet the criteria of a professional ethos and where confusion lies among them. Further, these examples assist in considering the problems and possibilities that may accompany the creation of an ethos capable of speaking to such a large and diverse population of professionals. These examples include: Dewey's Pedagogic Creed, the Ethical Standards of the American Educational Research Association and the Code of Ethics of the National Education Association. All fail to meet the epideictic criteria of an ethos for the profession at large.;This inquiry concludes with an analysis of what is required as well as a call to action to engage the necessary conversations around ethos articulation.