The Role of Teachers Work in Society - Research Paper Example

Teacher’s Work Your name Class Affiliation/ University Course name Professors’ name Date Table of Contents ABSTRACT 2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 3 Aims 5 METHOD 5 Data analysis 6 FINDINGS 7 DISCUSSION 10 CONCLUSION 12 References 13 APPENDIX 14 ABSTRACT The aim of this research project was to find out why teachers teach and to do an analysis of the nature of their work. Generally, the study found that a majority of teachers did not want to be teachers and are therefore not in a profession of their choice. The first part of the report gives background information as regards teachers and their careers. It also gives a review about pertinent literature about teaching. The aims are then presented followed by a discussion of the methodology then the findings of the research. Succeeding the findings are analysis and conclusions. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Teaching has long been recognized as a noble profession (Herrera, 2011, para 1). It is a profession, which is recognized widely as a calling to serve the society. It is because of this reason that it has been referred to as a noble profession. The teaching profession offers employment to a large number of graduates in Australia. The number of people working as teachers has been growing by the years. In Australia, for example, the number of teachers have grown by over 20,000 (8%) in five years since 2001, which translates to 4000 teachers per year (ABS, 2007). There is also large number of teachers who enter and leave the profession each year. Many colleges, both middle and higher level, offer courses in teaching. A recent education report by Ballantyne et al (2003) showed that there were 38 institutions that offered 410 teacher education programs in 2001. An interesting finding from this report however was that there were very low completion rates among students who enrolled to study for teacher education courses ranging from undergraduate to graduate courses. A longitudinal survey of Australian youth (LSAY) reveals that those who enrol in teacher education programs are majorly drawn from the middle class strata of society in terms of their socio economic distribution. According to data from DEST Higher Education Statistics Collection, teacher education is not a favourite profession of choice among students whose parents are in professional occupations. Instead, it attracts a high representation among students whose parents are in clerical or skilled trader occupations. The findings by DEST also showed that most teacher trainees are likely to have grown up in provincial cities and rural areas. Relatively, the report identified that teacher education students were more likely to have come from a government secondary school and less likely to come from and independent school in comparison to their colleagues pursuing other university courses. Over the recent past, there has been a significant shift in the roles of teachers due to the changing nature of schools (Rosenblatt, 2001). This validates the need for different group of teachers. An example of this shift is integration of the various categories of schools such as pre-school and early primary education. More often than not, students who should be in one level of education are found in another and it is a task for teachers to design appropriate mechanisms to handle such students. Aims The aim of this project was to establish the nature of a teacher’s work, their motivation, challenges, and overall analysis of the profession. The following were the objectives: i. To critically analyze teachers work in the contemporary society. ii. To investigate the motivation behind people who are engaged in the teaching career. iii. To identify the challenges associated with the teaching career and recommend possible ways of addressing such challenges. METHOD The research sought data from teachers in the education sector. The primary method was through interview method. A set of questions was prepared and a sample of secondary school teachers was interviewed. The respondents to the interviews were identified through random sampling of secondary school teachers who were willing to participate in the interviews. Information was also obtained from other sources. These included written literature such as books, journals, and newspapers. There was also data obtained from electronic sources such as internet. Besides, consultations with people involved in teacher issues such as employers of teachers in government and private organizations, leaders of teachers unions, school principals and researchers was indispensible. Data analysis The responses of the teachers are discussed under the findings section of this report. A further elaboration of the findings section is also dealt with under the discussion section. Analysis will be statistical analysis/inferential statistics. It studies the teacher’s perceptions as regard their career, why they chose to be teachers and other information related to their work line. A report was prepared using information received from the respondents. The processed information was presented in prose, conclusions, and recommendations based on the findings that had been collected. Data was kept in computer hard drive and flash disks to enable retrieval. Using a computer, data was reduced to numerical values to ease analysis. FINDINGS Concisely the study revealed that teaching as a career still has lost its nobility. The respect, adoration, and significance that used to be accorded to members of the teaching fraternity are long gone. The respondents are in the profession not out of choice but as a consequence of lacking other viable alternatives. This is supported by most of the respondent’s view that they do not see any much benefits and rewards from teaching. Most of them have even gone a step further and enrolled in other courses to position themselves for other opportunities that may arise in the job market. Teachers do admit that their work is a challenging one. Furthermore, a majority recognize that they have a responsibility tasked on them by the society to guide their students to grow socially, academically, emotionally, spiritually and even psychologically. This is a challenging task because it calls for a teacher to play multiple roles as a guardian teacher and as a parent (Evans, 1997). Additionally teachers are not entirely trained to handle these issues and yet the society has placed that burden on them. The respondent teachers in secondary school report dealing with adolescents in boarding schools as a major issue. This is especially so because these children are in school most of the time with their teachers. Consequently, teachers find themselves playing parental roles to students under their care. This is a daunting task because teachers too have their own families to be concerned with and as such will call on them to make greater sacrifices. It also leads to emotional strain on the side of the teachers i.e. playing a parental responsibility to a large number of students on a daily basis (Marsh, 2010). Additionally, adolescents are by their nature a difficult lot to handle. At this stage, adolescents like to explore and experiment with many issues in life. Of particular interest, here is the recognition by teachers that they have a wider role rather than just ensuring the academic success of students who are under their care (Dannetta, 2002). They do realize this wider role and is in cognizant of the fact that a lot is expected from them. This may sometimes be unmanageable given the large number of classes and students each competing for the attention of few teachers. What is also striking about these findings is that a majority of teachers did not have a passion and desire to be teachers. Most of the respondents chose to be teachers as an option of last resort. Those who became teachers might have ventured in careers identified as lucrative such as medicine, law, engineering etc. When there is failure to join such professions teaching then becomes a dumping site for profession rejects. Most teachers reckon that initially as they joined the profession they had very high hopes, which eventually died down as they aged into the profession with age and expertise. The respondents argued that after several years of work, they suddenly do not find it fulfilling and begin to see the need to move out in search of greener pastures. Respondents joined the profession with great expectations but with the passage of time, that expectation slowly turned into despair and hopelessness. Furthermore, a significant number had pursued courses that bear little or no relation to teacher education and only joined the profession after attaining additional qualifications. Another factor worth mention from the research is the fact that majority of respondents are of the opinion that it is the eventual success of their students that is a measure of success (Black, 2001). Respondents reported being satisfied when they see their students also succeeding in life. Most respondents were aware that monetary benefits from teaching profession may not be forthcoming. This explains the desire by most respondents to keep continuing with their studies for professional development. They do this with the hope of leaving the teacher’s role for other lucrative jobs. As regards the membership of professional bodies and unions, very few of the teachers belong to professional bodies, most of which are geared towards the professional advancement of members. In contrast, however, most teachers belong to unions and are registered members. The rationale is that unions fight for the bread and butter issuers of its members. A majority of the respondents are in the profession to get money at the end of the month and very insignificant portion of them have the passion and motivation to teach. A greater majority are in the service for lack of better alternatives. DISCUSSION The findings do not paint a rosy picture about the profession. What is however clear from the findings is that a society cannot operate without a teacher. Findings also show that the current teachers, in the profession recognize this and are ready to discharge their duties as desired. Most teachers never really desired to be teachers in the first place. Even though teaching profession should be seen as a calling than a job to do for the benefit of money, there are a majority of people in the profession who have neither the calling nor the passion to serve. The findings also support the view that teaching offers employment to many people. The respondents were identified through random sampling and in most of the cases, the participants turned out to be teachers, which support the statistics by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that there has been an exponential growth of the number of teachers in the country. This is also supported by the fact many training institutions offer teacher education programmes. Since each of these institutions admits students annually, they consequently release a high number of graduates to the job market. A greater proportion of those in teacher education programmes have a background of a low socioeconomic status. This is evidenced by the fact that the findings show a trend whereby most teachers hail from their localities. When this is not so, they still have a background whereby they join the profession as role models. In most cases, these teachers have no mentors outside teaching profession. What is important from the findings is that teachers realize that they have a wider role to play rather than just imparting knowledge. This shows that teachers are able to handle learners who are at different stages given the changing nature whereby there is currently close integration of the different levels of schooling as pointed out in the literature review. CONCLUSION Teachers play a crucial and important role in society. As opposed to parents, teacher spends a great deal of time with children in school. They are hence capable of influencing them more than the parents or guardians. On the contrary, teachers are no longer accorded the respect and esteem that should go with the profession. The teaching career is a big employer of a majority of graduates. For that reason, there are currently significant trainees who are pursuing a course in the teaching. Most of them however decide to pursue teaching not because they are keenly interested in teaching but because they want to use it as a stepping-stone to joining other careers. To return the glory, fame, and nobility that have long been associated with the teaching profession, there is need for stringent entry requirements for people who want to practice as teachers. The profession should not be left to be a free for all affairs where people who have failed to meet requirements to pursue other courses and who have neither the desire nor ambition to be teachers are left to practice. References Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2007). Schools Australia 2006. Canberra: ABS. Ballantyne, R., Bain, JD., & Preston, B. (2003). Teacher Education Courses and Completions – Initial teacher education courses and 1999, 2000 and 2001 completions. Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). Black, S. (2001). “Morale Matters: When Teachers Feel Good about Their Work, Research Shows, Student Achievement Rises.” American School Board Journal 188 (1): 40–43. Dannetta, V. (2002). “What Factors Influence a Teacher’s Commitment to Student Learning?” Leadership and Policy in Schools 1(2): 144–171. Department of Education, Science and Training - DEST. (2003). Australia’s Teachers: Australia’s Future. Advancing innovation, Science Technology and Mathematics. Retrieved April 8, 2012 from: http://www.dest.gov.au/archive/schools/teachingreview/docum ents/Data_Analysis.pdf. Evans, L. (1997). “Understanding Teacher Morale and Job Satisfaction.” Teaching and Teacher Education 13(8): 831– 845. Herrera. A. H. (2011). Teaching as a Noble Profession. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from: http://www.orionbataan.com/component/content/article/68- education/498-teaching-as-a-noble-profession.html. Marsh, C. (2010). Becoming a Teacher. 5th ed. Frenchs Forest NSW: Pearson.  Rosenblatt, Z. (2001). “Teachers’ Multiple Roles and Skill Flexibility: Effects on Work Attitudes.” Educational Administration Quarterly 37(5): 684–708. APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Why did you decide to become a teacher? 2. How long have you been teaching? 3. What study did you do to get into teaching? 4. Did you come into teaching straight from school or have you worked in other places before coming into teaching? 5. What do you do in your average day at work? 6. What are the most rewarding parts of being a teacher? 7. What are some of the biggest challenges associated with being a teacher? 8. What career opportunities and pathways have you taken up or plan to take up? 9. Are you a member of any professional organisations (Union, professional association, state registration body, etc). What benefits accrue from being part of these organisations? 10. What professional development options are there in your school? What forms of professional development do you find most helpful in your workplace? 11. How would you describe your first year of teaching?  Read More