The Relationship Between Possible Self of the Social Studies and History Teacher Candidates and the Attitudes Towards Teaching Profession

Kamil Uygun,Muhammet Avaroğulları

doi:10.5539/ies.v13n4p64

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine to what extent the attitudes of pre-service teachers of social studies and history towards the teaching profession may predict possible teacher selves. Participants of the research are senior social studies teacher candidates studying at a public university in the spring semester of 2018-2019 academic year and history teacher candidates registered in the pedagogical formation program. Relational survey model, one of the survey models, was used in the research. The data was collected through Teacher Candidates Possible Selves Questionnaire and Attitude Scale towards Teaching Profession. The data obtained from the study were analyzed by Independent samples t test and simple linear regression analysis techniques. According to the results obtained from the research, there was no difference between the attitudes of social studies teacher candidates and history teacher candidates who received pedagogical formation education towards the teaching profession. While the department of teacher candidates was not effective on the expected teacher selves, it was determined that it was effective on the feared teacher selves. It has been understood that the attitude towards teaching profession is effective in predicting expected possible selves, but it is ineffective in predicting feared possible selves that are feared. Suggestions were made in line with the results obtained from the research.

Highlights

The concept of self is a very important concept in terms of sociology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology and similar social sciences as well as in terms of educational sciences
It was understood that gender did not affect prospective teachers’ possible selves
Perhaps a pedagogical formation program, which can be given for four years from the first year, may be an effective solution

Summary

Introduction

The concept of self is a very important concept in terms of sociology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology and similar social sciences as well as in terms of educational sciences. There are various theories related to the concept of self. One of them is the Possible Selves Theory developed by Markus and Nurius (1986). The person’s perceptions of himself include his beliefs about the current state of the self, and ideas and expectations about various potential situations. This second aspect of self-related knowledge has been described in possible self-theory (Bak, 2015). According to Markus and Nurius (1986), there are three possible types of self: expected, hoped for and feared selves. Hoped for self is the self that the person desires, and the feared self is the self that one fears the realization of it (Tatlı-Dalioğlu, 2016; Uygun & Karalı, 2019)

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion