Factors that are affecting the commitment of the pre-service teachers in Hungary and in Slovakia

Author(s):

Edina Kovács(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES E 02, Pre-service Teachers and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-22

15:30-17:00

Room:

OB-H1.49 (ALE 2)

Chair:

Alison Neilson

Contribution

The preparedness of teachers and their ability is a determining factor in education according to local and international analysis. (Mourshed and Barber, 2007; Sági and Ercsei, 2012).Countries with successful education systems have been already selecting students at the admission of the teachers training. The less successful ones can only select when it comes to employing the newly graduated teachers.However, this is only possible if the teaching profession is desirable enough that it attracts a sufficient number of candidates, who have the adequate academic results. As a result, the emphasis on the examination of the effectiveness, and commitment of students who are participating in the teacher training, has increased in recent years.

We see three phenomenon that are not so independent from each other: women’s large scale appearance on the labor market, instead of working in family farms as was common in the past, occupations changed in structure between the two world wars, new professions appeared after the Second World War, as well as public and higher education expansion. The appearance of women as teachers of lower levels of education meant that the kindergarten teacher and the primary teacher’s role contained primarily feminine attributes: it emphasizes the importance of personal attachment, concern and caring.

This can be an explanation for the status-loss of the profession since though founded in a different perspective, the relevant literature consistently claims that the core value and expectation of the teaching profession is caring, which is also perceived as a general expectation during teacher training. However, in Ireland, caring as a core value of the profession is even included in the Codes of Professional Conduct. Caring is often presented as an ethical dimension and/or interpreted as responsibility for the quality of relationships. In addition, reflected in traditions and stereotypes, caring is rather identified with the female gender (Drudy, 2008; Weiner, 2001).

Corresponding to that, our study results depict that the feminization of the profession is only partly the result of the growing number of women in the profession; the emergence of expectations and attributes traditionally identified with the female role are also contributing factors. It is supported not only with the already mentioned strong presence of the feminine career strategy, but also with the tendency that in terms of their aspirations and occupational position, the new entrant teachers remain below the average, which means that few of them continue their studies in a PhD program and work in a leading position. According to a study performed among education majors, paying attention to the emotions and problems of students is equally important for teacher candidates irrespectively to their gender (Kovács, 2012/a; 2012/b).

In short, we are comparing the teacher training in Hungary and Slovakia, and the teacher’s state in both countries. Finally, we examine the student database created in 2015 with the support of the International Visegrad Fund. This includes all the data from the completed questionnaires which were filled by students of the Catholic University in Ruzomberok and by the students of the University of Debrecen.

Method

I compared Hungarian and Slovak university students, to see how national/institutional factors modify these factors. The research was done in 2015 May, 334 people were in the sample. I made a questionnaire, in Hungarian and in Slovak (so everybody could write in his/her mothertounge language). First hypothesis was that social and cultural characteristics of the two university’s pre-service teachers do not differ significantly from each other. This is also true as regards the midrange, but the Slovakian students are coming from a slightly better financial background, although more people are coming from villages than the Hungarians, and the parents’ highest level of education is somewhat more favorable in Debrecen. In particular there are more graduates among mothers, and within the graduates there are many who have a degree in teaching. Second hypothesis was that gender has a strong influence to students' commitment. It is ture, but there are big differences between the two countries. Third hypothesis was those students who consider themselves more prepared felt better about teaching and rather wanted to teach. It is true in Slovakia, but not (only partly) in Hungary.

Expected Outcomes

According to the Hungarian students the opportunity for professional development and the influence on education policy is considered significantly better, and more women think these than men. Many among Slovak students think that they do not want to find a job as a teacher, and it is also more likely that if they are going to teach, they would choose a different profession within five years. The gender has a significant impact on the attrition: as expected, men are more interested in trying themselves in other fields. Surprisingly there are no gender differences in the intention on choosing this profession, just leaving the profession is considered to be more likely among men according to the students of the University of Debrecen. Another strong influencing factor is the satisfaction with the training: those students who consider themselves more prepared felt better about teaching and rather wanted to teach. There is a particularly strong correlation in the case of the students of the Catholic University in Ruzomberok, who are more satisfied with their education than the students in Debrecen except the preparedness of the academic subjects. Hungarian students in some dimensions grade the teacher profession as a rather classical profession, which is reflected in their expectations of the higher-education training and increases their commitment of this field of education. However, it seems that the approach of Slovak students is more practical. The male students in both countries are less attracted to teaching. The reasons are not just the relatively low salaries because there were no significant differences between the genders of this perception. Rather, it is likely that several dimensions - including the satisfaction with the training, or the assessment of the latter professional development opportunities - together cause the male students to find other professions more attractive.

References

Sheelagh Drudy (2008): Professionalism, Performativity and Care: Whither Teacher Education for a Gendered Profession in Europe? In: Brian Hudson and Pavel Zgaga (eds.): Teacher Education Policy in Europe: a Voice of Higher Education Institutions Kovács Edina (2012): The Characteristics of Identity Development of Pedagogy Students from the Partium Historacal Region. In: Higher Education in the Romania-Hungary Cross-border Area. Kozma Tamás, Bernáth Krisztina (eds.). Partium Press, Oradea, Center for Higher Education Research and Development, Debrecen Kovács Edina (2012): Teacher’s Career and Educational Aspirations, based on the „Graduate Follow-up Research 2010”. Hungarian Educational Research Journal, 2(4), http://herj.hu Mona Mourshed and Michael Barber (2007): How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top. McKinsey & Company Sági Matild és Ercsei Kálmán (2012): A tanári munka minőségét befolyásoló tényezők. In: Kocsis Mihály és Sági Matild (szerk.) Pedagógusok a pályán. Oktatáskutató és Fejlesztő Intézet, Budapest, 9–30. Gaby Weiner (2001): Uniquely Similar or Similarly Unique? Education and Developement of Teachers in Europe. Teaching Education. 13. 273 – 288.

Author Information

Edina Kovács (presenting / submitting)

University of Debrecen

Educational Studies Doctoral Program

Debrecen

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