Exploring Teaching Profession from a Sociological Perspective: Evidence from Turkey

Abstract

Taking into consideration the teachers' direct influence on students' educational life and indirect influence on the community life, the present study aims to reveal perspectives of sociologists, who study human social relationships and institutions, toward teaching profession. Data were collected from 20 sociologists working in educational institutions in Turkey through a semi-structured interview, and analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods under the supervision of three experts (an education programme developer, an educational sociologist, and a member of faculty of education). Findings of the study demonstrated that relatively more professional and technical aspects of teaching are perceived inferior to personal and psychological characteristics of teachers, and that it is still evaluated as a reliable and divine profession despite negative perceptions about it. Financial security, professional satisfaction and vacation time were reported as positive aspects of the profession while exhaustiveness, low prestige and low quality of the profession as negative aspects. As a conclusion, it tends to lose its professional prestige and reliability, and teachers are faced with a variety of problems triggered by different factors in Turkey. The study concludes with possible reasons for the problems in concern, and practical implications to overcome them. (As Provided)