Paper Title
Teacher Professionalism In Zambia: Practices, Challenges And Prospects In The Post-2015 ERA

Abstract
This article discusses the concept of teacher professionalism in the Zambian context. The aim of the article was to highlight the current strides that newly established Teaching Council has put in place in its quest to professionalise teaching. Since Zambia attained her political independence in October, 1964, there has been a great desire to see a teacher acquire a professional status, that is, an occupational status symbol. Most school teachers, college and university lecturers, the parents and many educationists look forward to a day when the teaching profession will have this status. Against this background, the Government of the Republic of Zambia in conjunction with other stakeholders in the education sector has made strides with the view to professionalise teaching. Particular efforts point to the enactment of the Teaching Profession Act no.5 of 2013 and the development of a Code of Ethics and Conduct to regulate the teachers� practice and professional conduct in government and private schools. Despites having made some strides in this direction, many structural challenges have made it difficult to actualise this status. The practices and structural challenges associated with teacher professionalism are discussed in this article and we conclude thisby highlighting some prospects in Teacher professionalism in the post 2015 era. Key words- Teacher, Professionalism, Practices, Challenges, Prospects.