Personal and Professional Problems of Elementary School Teachers

Abstract

DURING THE 1952 summer school session two groups of elemen tary school teachers were asked to designate on a check-list of 51 prob lems which ones they found to be serious, which of some concern and which of practically no importance. Their answers were to apply only to their present teaching situation. One of the groups included 148 teachers, 38 men and 110 women, attending the summer session of the State University Teachers College, Oswego, New York. The second group numbered 23 teachers, 12 men and 11 women, attending the sum mer session at the Appalachian State Teachers College in Boone, North Carolina. The 51 problems on the check-sheet were selected by the writers as being of considerable importance to teachers on the basis of their own experience as classroom teachers and as instructors in teachers colleges. In interpreting the results it should be noted that only 44 of the 51 problems would apply to all in the teacher group. The following problems concerned sub-groups within the main group: domestic obli gations of married teachers; family responsibilities of single teachers; problems due to advanced age; personal problems due to extreme youth; problems arising from being a minority group member in the commun ity; teaching problems due to advanced age; and teaching problems arising from being a minority group member. Table I gives the rank order of the problems of the total group of 171 teachers. In calculating rank order a problem listed by a teacher as serious was given twice the weight of one checked as being of some, but not great, concern. Table II shows the comparative rank order of men and women teachers and Table in of southern and northern teachers. Table IV shows the per cent of teachers in the total group, and also by sex and by section of the country, encountering each problem. The S column relates to per cent of the group considering each prob lem serious, the L column of some, but not great concern.