Economic, Legal, and Social Status of Teachers

Abstract

status of teachers in our society, we can justifiably report that the research, altho it consists largely of statistical tabulations, is worthwhile. However, the basic questions of what a competent teacher is worth to society and how the social or economic status of teachers affects the caliber of persons choosing teaching as a vocation still offer real challenge for research. Research on the legal status of teachers has been confined largely to the development of general guiding principles and the reporting of new legislation and court decisions. The influence of laws and their interpretation upon the effectiveness of the educational process requires the attention of research workers. Social status studies have been approached primarily thru the use of rankings of various occupations, studies of the determinants of vocational choice, and the use of economic status as a reflection of the social values placed upon the teaching profession. In the area of economic and social status, one of the most challenging aspects of the research may be the application of the methodology of the more general studies to specific communities and school districts. An indication of the renewed interest in the status of staff personnel was given by the publication in 1954 of textbooks by Elsbree and Reutter (20), Weber (78), and Yeager (80).