Resumen de Perspectives of teachers on the reputation of their profession in society
Barbara Šteh, Jana Kalin, Renata Čepić
When researching the work and professional development of teachers, we must keep in mind teachers’ work and life in a specific social environment in which they are contributing to the well-being of both the individuals and the entire community. Within this context, teachers recognise the value of their work and reputation of their profession. Various international reports and studies suggest that the role of teachers is becoming more demanding and more complex, and that their responsibilities are increasing, while on the other hand, their reputation in society, when compared to other professions, is stagnant or even declining. However, it should be noted that the reputation of the teaching profession is not the same in all countries. This then begs the question of the key factors contributing to this. We assume that the teachers’ professional activity, among other things, affects how they perceive their role and position in the society. In this paper we present the points of view of elementary school teachers on the reputation of their profession. We designed a questionnaire that we applied to a representative sample of Slovenian and Croatian teachers, and analysed the differences. The study included a total of 1,867 teachers, 764 from Slovenia and 1,103 from Croatia. It was found that Croatian elementary school teachers, unlike their Slovenian colleagues, believe that the teaching profession enjoys a lower reputation, and that both Croatian and Slovenian teachers rate preschool teaching and their own profession of elementary school teaching as having a lower status.
