engleski

Status of the teacher and the teaching profession: views from within (pp.159-180)

It is clear that over time the role and tasks of teachers have increased, while their status, compared to other professions, has remained stagnant or has even worsened, as confirmed by the results of many different national and international reports and studies. It can be stated that teachers are often caught between the high expectations of the society (and probably themselves) and low professional respect. Croatian teachers, to a greater extent than Slovenian ones, agreed with the fact that teachers’ work is among the most important in the society, while, on the other hand, they feel to an even greater extent that the teachers’ work has a low social reputation and is paid less in comparison to other equally demanding professions. In contrast, Croatian teachers agree to a lesser extent than Slovenian teachers that their profession provides regular income and financial independence, and that parents and students respect them. In this sense, it can be concluded that Croatian elementary school teachers perceive their reputation in society as being lower than Slovenian teachers do, although they assess their qualification for professional activity to be significantly higher. At the same time, they assess themselves as being well qualified for their professional activity, but also as under- recognized by others in relation to how much they think they should be recognized. Such a discrepancy signals the existence of a number of factors affecting the teachers’ self- positioning and status of the profession. This discrepancy also appears among Slovenian teachers, but is less pronounced. The results of this research point to how teachers rank the reputation of their profession in relation to the reputation of other professions such as preschool teacher, high school teacher, university professor, physician, nurse, lawyer, entrepreneur, journalist, and stage actor. It was found that Croatian and Slovenian teachers ranked highest the profession of physician followed by lawyer and entrepreneur. In accordance with the results of other research, it is not surprising that both Croatian and Slovenian teachers ranked lowest the professions of preschool and primary school teachers. It is a disturbing fact that Croatian and Slovenian teachers in our research express the least agreement for the statement that they are respected by the students who are the first “users” of their knowledge. In this context we should mention that a certain degree of responsibility for their reputation in society certainly lies in the hands of teachers themselves and that through demonstrating quality and excellence in their professional activity they can certainly contribute to achieving greater respect among students and parents, both toward themselves and their work, and thus contribute to improving their prestige and status in society. It should be expected that the dynamic changes taking place in our region impose a need for the creation of an educational policy in which the following outcomes will have priority: the improvement of salaries and working conditions which appear to be the most critical factors affecting the professional status and personal self-esteem of teachers, the provision of high quality teacher education, professional development opportunities and promising careers, the assurance of academic freedom, autonomy, and participation in decision-making, advocating for a strong system of public education in local communities, maintenance of a regular dialogue between educational associations and government, and encouraging for teachers’ participation in public policy development.

Professional development ; teachers ; status ; transversal competencies

Znanstvena monografija POKLICNI RAZVOJ UČITELJEV: Ugled in transverzalne kompetence / TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Status and transversal competencies (2019.) je prijevod na slovenski i engleski jezik u izdanju Znanstvene založbe Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani i Učiteljskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Rijeci. Tiskana knjiga COBISS.SI-ID=299773184 ISBN 978-961-06-0196-8 E-knjiga COBISS.SI- ID=299762944 ISBN 978-961-06-0195-1 (pdf ) Originalni izvor "Profesionalni razvoj učitelja: status, ličnost i transverzalne kompetencije" na hrvatskom jeziku objavljen je u široj verziji (2017.) u sklopu istoimenog znanstveno-istraživačkog projekta Sveučilišta u Rijeci 13.10.2.2.02.