Teacher Perceptions of Intra-Occupational Status Relationships among Elementary, Junior High, and Senior High School Teaching Positions

Abstract

Intra-occupational status, i.e., status relationships among positions within a given occupation, is anem piricaUy documented construct. Perrucci (10) found such relationships among engineers, as did Mason and Gross (8) among school superintendents and Smith (11) among the professional staff in a large educational re search center. Similar intra-occupational status relationships have been informally observed among teaching positions. Meltzer (9) noted a status difference between elementary and high school teachers, betweenteach ers of academic and non-academic subjects, and between teaching positions in neighborhoods of varying socio-economic levels. Seniority and student ability were teacher status variables noted byHavighurst and Neugarten (4) . Similar observations have been made by Lieberman (7 ), Hodgkinson (5), and Stub (12) .With the exception of a study by Becker (1), however, which suggested that socio-economic level of the school neigh borhood may be a significant variable for status among teachers, little has been done to document the existence of these teacher intra-occupational status differences or to study their impact on the institution. THIS STUDY(3) investigated teachers'perceptions of intra-occupational status relationships among el ementary, junior high, and senior high school teach ing positions in one school system. Status was de fined as the aUocation of variable amounts of au thority, income, rights, and privileges to the dif ferent positions in a social system such that posi tions come to be ranked in a vertical hierarchy o f desirability. Six questions were investigated: 1. Do teachers perceive other teachers as supporting intra-occupational status dif ferences among elementary, junior high, and senior high school teaching positions ? 2. Do teachers perceive the community as supporting intra-occupational status dif ferences among elementary, junior high, and senior high school teaching positions? 3. Do teachers support the differential dis tribution of statusful symbols of employ ment among elementary, junior high, and senior high school teaching positions? 4. Are male teachers both more perceptive and more supportive of a teacher intra occupational status system than are fe male teachers? 5. Are older teachers both more perceptive and more supportive of a teacher intra occupational status system than younger teachers? 6. Do teachers who have been assigned to elementary, junior high, or senior high school teaching positions differ from one another in their perceptions and support of a teacher intra-occupational status system among those positions?