Teachers' professional orientation and their concerns

Abstract

Educational innovations strongly appeal to teachers' professionalism and their concerns. In the present study, the assumption was examined that teachers' professionalism and their concerns with educational innovations are related. For this purpose, 164 teachers from nine schools for secondary agricultural education filled in two questionnaires. The study revealed two main types of teachers: teachers with an extended professional orientation and teachers with a less extended professional orientation. Teachers with a less extended professional orientation were shown to be more self-concerned and task-concerned than teachers with an extended professional orientation. Teachers with an extended professional orientation, however, were shown to be more other-concerned. Collaboration between teachers is necessary to implement innovations in a successful way. Collaboration mainly is a characteristic of teachers with an extended professional orientation and refers to being other-concerned. The findings of this study suggest that schools need teachers with an extended professional orientation to implement innovations in a successful way.