Abstract
This study aimed at exploring how teachers consider the prestige of their profession in Turkish society. It was conducted using the phenomenology design, which is a qualitative research method. The study group consisted of 674 teachers who participated in the study on a voluntary basis. Participants were selected using the maximum variation sampling method. Research data was collected through interview method and a semi-structured interview form was used as data collection tool. In line with the aim of the study, content analysis was performed by the researcher and an expert, individually, to analyze the data. At the end of the study, it was found that 82% of the participants stated that teaching is not a prestigious profession in Turkey. The teachers also added that the prestige of the teaching profession in Turkey varies across regions with different socio-economic characteristics, across institutions (public-private) and according to the level of teaching, and recommended that steps should be taken to increase social awareness about the significance of the profession.
Highlights
The importance attached to education system in a society exposes this society‟s effort to exist, reflects its development level and demonstrates the qualified human resource it has
These findings indicate that the prestige of the profession has gradually declined in Turkey and in various parts of the world
When we analyzed the demographic distribution of the teacher views, we found that 87% of the teachers who had 0-9 experience in the profession made negative comments on the subject
Summary
The importance attached to education system in a society exposes this society‟s effort to exist, reflects its development level and demonstrates the qualified human resource it has. Changes and developments in the field of teacher training continued throughout the 19th century, and the first teacher training school named “Darülmuallimin” was opened in 1848 to train male teachers for rüştiye (today‟s junior high school). Village Institutes that was opened after the establishment of the Republic aimed to train teachers who would be teaching in rural areas. Thanks to their high quality education based on life-wide practices, teachers who graduated from village institutes attained a status allowing them to have a voice in almost every issue in the villages they were appointed, which made a significant contribution to increase the respect accorded to teaching profession and teachers (Karamustafaoğlu & Özmen, 2004). After dissolved in 1953, Village Institutes were reorganized as 6 year “Primary Teacher Schools”, and these schools continued their existence in the teacher training system until the 1970s (The Council of Higher Education [CoHE], 1998)
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