The Professional Identity of Urban Teachers in the Context of Educational Modernization

Abstract

The paper deals with the research findings of the empirical study in secondary schools in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don in 2017. A survey of more than 1,500 respondents was aimed at analyzing the perception of their social and economic situation by the teachers; studying the teacher's social identity structure; identifying the labor motivation and estimate the degree of precaritization of the Russian teachers. The survey findings have shown that the state social policy and salary level affect professional well-being of teachers. Teachers in the provincial city, compared with those who live in the capital (considering significant pay gap), are more critical about the prestige of their profession, quality of life and material prosperity, they are more sensitive to increased workload, without any noticeable increase in wage. At the same time, there are noticeably fewer Moscow teachers who are satisfied with the pedagogical profession itself. They are also concerned about the risks of job loss, wage cuts and increased workload. In the structure of teacher's group identity in Moscow and Rostov schools, professional groups are inferior to primordial and abstract-symbolic communities. At the same time, a comparative analysis of the survey data in different years indicates that teachers in Russia traditionally maintain high level of corporate professional identity, i.e. their commitment and loyalty to their place of work and their colleagues. In general, the excessive administrative burdens imposed on the teaching staff, as well as the societal demand for the results of teachers' work in the context of the deteriorating economic situation in the country, create risks for maintaining positive professional identity of teachers, and largely limits the capacity of the reforms in school.