| Abstract [eng] |
Teacher‘s profession plays a crucial role building a bright future and raising the younger generation. However, the research shows that this profession is currently facing significant challenges. The image of the teacher, created in the society, substantially contributes to the perception of this profession, leading to the increasing lack of teachers and their demotivation. Research signifies that the image of the teacher communicated in news media is negative, this way deteriorating the prestige of this profession. In attempt to solve this problem, in 2017 Lithuania set a goal to make teacher’s profession prestigious until 2025 by applying national policy measures. This objective seeks to raise awareness in the society and bring this profession back to its deserved respectful position. One of the ways to do this, recommended by specialists, concerns communication about teachers as it can significantly improve or deteriorate teacher’s professional image. That is why the problem of this project arises from the question: what is the image of the teacher communicated in Lithuanian news portals regarding the upcoming 2025? Is it evident from the news media discourse about teachers that this profession is prestigious and the goal has been attained? This research field has previously been studied by Prakapas and Prakapienė (2020), R. Bilbokaitė and I. Bilbokaitė (2009). Still, there is a gap in current database regarding upcoming 2025. The object of this project correlates with the problem and therefore is the communication about the teachers in Lithuanian news portals. The aim of this research project is to analyse the image of the teacher communicated in Lithuanian news portals in relation to the national policy goal of making teacher’s profession prestigious until 2025. To reach it, four objectives have been set: 1. Discuss the professional image of the teacher and its complexity; 2. describe the significance of communication in news portals while creating the image of the teacher; 3. analyse the image of the teacher in communication of Lithuanian news portals; 4. present the image of the teacher communicated in Lithuanian news portals discussing its features and peculiarities. The methodology of the research is of mixed approach. Firstly, critical literature review has been conducted, discussing the main theoretical concepts, scientists’ insights and results of the research previously done in this field. Then applying purposeful sampling based on criteria the text database from media monitoring company „Mediaskopas“ has been chosen for quantitative content analysis. Analysing news portals‘ publications (N=1598), the following aspects have been discussed: discourse dynamics, dominant sources, themes and audience. For the second part of the research, mixed sampling methods were used to filter the database of texts: firstly, purposeful criteria sampling, then systematic random sampling, ultimately – document review method. The database of the quantitative analysis was therefore diminished (N=78) and prepared for a qualitative research: critical discourse analysis. With the help of MAXQDA the publications of news portals were analysed in order to gather the main features of the image of the teacher communicated. The results of this research show that teacher’s profession is perceived as unattractive due to excessive workload and inappropriate salary. News media communication tends to frame educational issues as crisis, thus creating a negative image of the teacher. In Lithuanian news portals under the analysed period of time the dominant topic was teachers’ strike together with the discussion of education issues, but not their solutions. Amongst the discourse agents the most dominant is opposition teachers-government. The image of the teacher, communicated in the news portals, is dual: on one hand teachers are shown as role models, who try to take initiative and act in the face of challenges, on the other hand they are portrayed as victims with no hope left. The prestige of teacher’s profession, regarding the upcoming 2025, is communicated as being low, metaphorically compared to a precious object shattered on the floor. The insights of this research lead to the statement that the national goal to make this profession prestigious until 2025 is not achieved yet. The results of this research can be consulted while analysing the complexity of teacher’s image communication in Lithuania. They can further be compared to later data, if such research is done after 2025. The features of teacher’s image, communicated in the news portals, can be beneficial creating a public communication strategy in order to improve the presentation of this profession to the society. The project consists of introduction, critical literature review, methodology part, empirical research and its results’ discussion, conclusion, literature and sources lists including appendix. |
