This research study began as an attempt to discover the extent of professionalism and variables (individual, community, school, etc.) related to it among public school teachers. Preliminary analysis of survey data gathered from 3189 undergraduate college students and 9688 public school teachers indicated few relationships of any of the independent study variables to professionalism, and weak interrelations among the different aspects of professionalism. (Most of the related negative results are not presented in the report. The data-gathering instruments and a list of variables derived from them are included.) The principal focus of the research was therefore shifted somewhat, with primary attention devoted to an examination of such questions as: (1) the extent to which, and the ways in which, teaching is a professional occupation; (2) why teachers are not more professional; (3) why schools are not administered in more professionalizing ways; and (4) what the prospects are of altering the situation. The main general conclusion was that teaching is not a profession, mainly because it is a predominantly feminine occupation. The primacy of family rather than work role orientations among women keeps them from being professional in outlook or behavior. School administrators behave accordingly, so that schools are run bureaucratically rather than through collegial control by professional colleague groups. The resulting atmosphere in the schools affects male teachers, through selective recruitment into teaching of men whose orientations fit the prevailing situation and through pressures to conform. The situation is not likely to change. (Author/JH)