| Abstract [eng] |
The attitude towards a teacher has been changing negatively since the latest inventions of a mankind (such as radio, television or internet) have appeared and because of which the information has been reaching people of all over the world much faster and at a lower cost. This tendency of a decrease of the teacher’s occupational prestige can be seen in many other European and other countries in the world (Latvia, Russia, Czech Republic, etc.). Although a question of the teacher’s occupational prestige has often been discussed in Lithuania’s public policy, media and common discourse during the last several years, a concept “prestige” mostly is used without going deeper into the way to understand what a teacher’s occupational prestige really is and how it should be assessed. So in this project several questions have been made: what are the elements of a concept “occupational prestige”; how to assess the level of an occupational prestige; what factors may affect the teacher’s occupational prestige? In Lithuania, it is often discussing about the decrease of a teacher’s occupational prestige and it is being tried to find the ways how to restore the prestige of this profession to its previous heights. Nevertheless, there are no researches or analysis made in Lithuania which would allow to define a degree of prestige of a particular profession within the assessment of the occupational prestige of other professions. So the object of this project is the level of a teacher’s occupational prestige and the influence of the factors that may affect it. The aim of this project is to determine the place of teacher’s occupational prestige among the other professions according to the level of their occupational prestige and to define the main areas, the change of which could have positive or negative impact on the increase of a teacher’s occupational prestige in Lithuania. In order to achieve the aim, the following objectives have been set: to analyze the concept of an occupational prestige in scientific publications; to determine the factors which could have positive or negative impact on a teacher’s occupational prestige; to create the instrument for the assessment of a teacher’s occupational prestige; to identify the level of a teacher’s occupational prestige in the context of other professions and to analyze the importance of factors which may have some influence on the level of a teacher’s occupational prestige. In order to make this research the following methods have been used: the descriptive analysis of scientific literature and other sources, a qualitative analysis of the content of social media articles, a quantitative method – a questionnaire with mixed questions (open and closed ones) have been used. The IBM SPSS 25 program has been used for the quantitative analysis. During the research time it has been found out that the concept “prestige” usually is identified as a sense of state or self-esteem which is associated with the positive and satisfying emotions and is based on external perception. The analysis of scientific publications revealed that the level of occupational prestige may be influenced by external factors (negative public policy of a country in relation to education restricting teacher's professional autonomy; the influence of remuneration on social status, which is an important variable of occupational prestige; the process of feminization in education; the negative image of a teacher that has been created by the social media) and internal factors related to the representative of a profession himself (teacher’s competence and professionalism; personal characteristics of the teacher). Having the analysis made it has been found out that a teacher’s profession takes only 16th place according to the assessment of the occupational prestige of other professions. The teachers themselves are more critical talking about the prestige of their profession and see their profession only in the18th place out of twenty in ranking of professions according to the average of the assessment. The significance of remuneration and material well-being are identified as significant factors determining the assessment of job satisfaction. These factors also have a significant impact on the gender distribution in the workforce of a particular sphere. An empirical relationship between gender and teacher’s occupational prestige was found. It was also calculated that the correlation between the level of competence and the level of occupational prestige is positive. This work consists of three parts: theoretical part, the methodology of the research and the analytical part of the research. This research is relevant and its results can be used for more detailed research on a teacher’s occupational prestige. The results of research can also be used in the administration of the education system, for making national and regional decisions which may have influence on the change of attitude towards a teacher’s occupational prestige. |
