The Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes to Teaching Profession, the Case of Estonia

Abstract

The general ageing of population is reflected at schools similarly to the society as a whole. The average age of teachers is growing and young people do not find the teaching career attractive enough to pursue. This is leading to the situation where the schools may lack teachers in 10-15 years' time. The aim of the current study was to explore the 18-19-year-old students' perceptions and attitudes to the teaching profession in the case of Estonia. 275 students were questioned to explore the popularity of the teaching profession. The results revealed that although the students value teachers' job highly, they consider it a hard, underpaid and lowchallenging job.

Teachers As Promoters Of Teaching: Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Profession, The Case Of Estonia

“…These findings were supported by Frusher and Newton (1987), who listed extrinsic reasons as the most influential aspects of the teaching career. In the current study, intrinsic, extrinsic and altruistic motivations are explored in teachers and compared to the students' motivations in the previous study (Saks et al, 2016).…”

“…In Estonia, similar traits can be identified in public attitudes towards teachers compared to other European countries. While generally, the reputation of teachers is on the rise in society (Johnson & Duffett, 2003;Rustique-Forrester & Haselkorn, 2002; Õpetajaameti kuvand ja atraktiivsus, 2016), the teachers themselves (Adams, 2003;Fuller et al, 2013; Õpetajaameti kuvand ja atraktiivsus, 2016; TALIS, 2014) as well as students (Saks et al, 2016) are significantly more critical and pessimistic. Teachers tend to underestimate public respect for their profession (Everton et al, 2007;Õpetajaameti kuvand ja atraktiivsus, 2016) and reflect this mentality to their students.…”

“…According to a report by the OECD (2014), Estonia is one of the few countries with the oldest and still ageing teacher population. The small number of young teachers in Estonian schools is a direct result of a lack of interest in the teaching profession among young people (Saks et al, 2016), which in turn may be the result of the low level of prestige of the profession in society (Õpetajaameti kuvand ja atraktiivsus, 2016;TALIS, 2014). This may lead to a situation where large numbers of retiring teachers are difficult to replace with new recruits, which may further worsen existing teacher shortages (OECD, 2014).…”

“…Being aware of the factors that influence the choice of the teaching career provides a starting point for attracting new teachers and developing teacher education programmes that serve the needs of future teachers (Fray & Gore, 2018). In order to explore the attitude of students toward teaching profession, a study was conducted in 2014 (Saks et al, 2016) where 18-19-year-old students were questioned about their perceptions of teaching profession and whether they would pursue a career in teaching. The study revealed that students had a rather realistic albeit negative attitude towards teaching profession.…”

“…They adequately estimated the work of teacher and noticed the problems and difficulties teachers had to face on a daily basis. Yet, students' attitude towards the profession may not only be affected by what they see every day at school but also by the messages teachers themselves send about their work (Hutchinson & Johnson, 1994), their self-concept and self-evaluation (Judge & Bono, 2001), job satisfaction (Saks et al, 2016) and the general reputation of the job.…”