THE STATUS OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION IN LATVIA: VIEWS OF THE TEACHERS
Journal Title: Problems of Education in the 21st Century - Year 2019, Vol 77, Issue 1
Abstract
Professionals who are respected in the wider community can influence public opinion and shape societal value system. While in a number of European countries teaching profession is popular and respected, in many other including Latvia its prestige is rather low. There is an ongoing debate in Latvia how to raise it; therefore, the aim of this research was to study teachers’ views about the status and prestige of their occupation. The quantitative research design was developed. The web survey of teachers (n=1773) confirmed that teachers perceived their occupational prestige in Latvia as low and believed that in other European countries it is much higher. Teachers did not feel assessed adequately to their contribution. In general, teachers were concerned about their professional autonomy and freedom as they felt frustrated, overloaded and over-controlled from different sides. The respondents believed that teachers are authorities and opinion leaders also outside school that indicated positive aspects of occupational prestige. They admitted that teachers should have an ability to adapt in order to respond on contemporary societal and technological changes. Some suggestions were developed on how to improve occupational prestige: from a system perspective, more positive and supportive attitude towards education system and teachers is expected from municipalities, policy makers and the line ministry. Meanwhile great part of the respondents believed that teachers themselves should be responsible for the forming of positive image of their profession and should communicate with society more effectively on the specificity of teaching and challenges they face in contemporary conditions.
Authors and Affiliations
Līga Paula, Ilze Priževoite
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP458447
- DOI 10.33225/pec/19.77.126
- Views 112
- Downloads 0
PROMOTING BASIC COGNITIVE SKILLS THROUGH CONSTRUCTIVIST-BASED STRATEGIES IN A PHYSIOLOGY COURSE
One of the main purposes of education today is to develop student’s ability to think in a systemic, analytical and logical manner to become self-directed, critical thinkers. Hence, students need to be efficient in one or...
CRITICAL THINKING IN EDUCATION: WHY TO AVOID LOGICAL FALLACIES?
The study argues for the claim that a correct argumentation, i.e. a non-fallacious or good reasoning, should be the essential part of the education process, which is not always the case. The bad argumentation makes human...
EFFECTS OF GENDER ROLE PORTRAYAL IN TEXTBOOKS IN KENYAN PRIMARY SCHOOLS, ON PUPILS ACADEMIC ASPIRATIONS
The researcher aims to investigate the effect of gender role portrayal in selected textbooks in Kenyan primary schools on pupils’ academic aspirations. The study explored participants’ perceptions of what academic levels...
TRAINING APPROACHES FOR IMPROVING SCHOOL MANAGERS’ CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS: A CASE STUDY
This research took a case study approach to researching the common conflicts faced by school managers, their sources, impacts and the approaches used to manage them. The research involved 18 in-service Malaysian school m...
RESEARCH ETHICS: AN INVESTIGATION INTO WHY SCHOOL LEADERS AGREE OR REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
The present qualitative study investigates the reasons given by 236 Norwegian upper secondary school leaders when they either accepted or refused to take part in a research project. The analysis shows that those who agre...