TEACHER CANDIDATES' ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE TEACHING PROFESSION – WORRYING TRENDS

Turkish Studies - International Periodical For The Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic

Volume 9/11 Fall 2014, p. 529-545, ANKARA-TURKEY

TEACHER CANDIDATES' ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE TEACHING PROFESSION – WORRYING TRENDS*

P. Oya TANERİ**

K. Funda NAYİR***

Gerry MCNAMARA****

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the teaching profession, and to explain the worrying trends about teaching in Turkey and Ireland. 298 teacher candidates participated in the study. Two geographically distinct groups of teacher candidates were compared in this study. The first was a group of Turkish teacher candidates from the Pedagogical Formation Program at Cankiri Karatekin University, while the second consists of Irish teacher candidates from the Teacher Education Institutions in Dublin.

The data were collected through an attitude scale designed to measure perceptions of the teaching profession, and analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The results of this study suggest that most of both Turkish and Irish the teacher candidates have positive attitudes towards the teaching profession but they have some worries about the future of teaching profession. The findings also suggest that both Turkish and Irish prospective pointed out that teaching profession has lost its importance and attractiveness day by day.

The views of participants of both groups were seriously influenced by the cultural contexts in which they trained and lived. Turkish teacher candidates tended to believe in that the teaching profession is a sacred profession and it requires self-sacrifice while Irish teacher candidates do not agree this view. Likewise, while more than half of the Turkish participants stated that teaching profession creates stress, only small proportion of the Irish participants agree with this interpretation.

It was hoped that the results of this present study will help educators and researchers to understand whether the teacher training institutions help the teacher candidates to have positive attitudes toward the teaching profession.

* The earlier version of this paper relating to Turkish participants was presented at International Teacher Education Conference, held on in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between 5-7 February, 2014.

Bu makale Crosscheck sistemi tarafından taranmış ve bu sistem sonuçlarına göre orijinal bir makale olduğu tespit

edilmiştir. ** Yrd. Doç. Dr. Çankırı Karatekin University, Faculty of Art, Department of Educational Science, Çankırı, Turkey,

[email protected] *** Yrd. Doç. Dr. Çankırı Karatekin University, Faculty of Art, Department of Educational Science, Çankırı, Turkey, [email protected] **** Dublin City University, School of Education Studies, Dublin, Ireland, [email protected]

530 P. Oya TANERİ – K. Funda NAYİR – Gerry MCNAMARA

Turkish Studies International Periodical For the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic

Volume 9/11 Fall 2014

Key Words: Pedagogical training, teacher candidates, teacher education, teaching profession, attitude, secondary education teacher.

ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARININ ÖĞRETMENLİK MESLEĞİNE İLİŞKİN TUTUMLARI - ENDİŞE VERİCİ EĞİLİMLER

ÖZET

Bu çalışmanın amacı Türkiye ve İrlanda’daki öğretmen adaylarının öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik tutumlarının ve öğretim hakkındaki endişe verici eğilimlerinin incelenmesidir. Çalışmaya 298 öğretmen adayı katılmıştır. Bu çalışmada iki coğrafi bölgedeki farklı öğretmen adayı grupları karşılaştırılmıştır. Çankırı Karatekin Üniversitesi’nden Pedagojik formasyon eğitimi alan öğretmen adayları iken ikinci grup Dublin Öğretmen eğitimi Enstitüsünden İrlandalı öğrencilerden oluşmaktadır.

Veriler, öğretmen adaylarının öğretmenlik mesleği konusundaki tutumlarını ölçmek için tasarlanan tutum ölçeği kullanılarak toplanmış ve betimsel istatistikler kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonuçları Türk ve İrlandalı öğretmen adaylarının çoğunun öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik olumlu tutumlara sahip olduğunu, ancak öğretmenlik mesleğinin geleceğine dair bazı endişeler taşıdıklarını göstermektedir. Bulgular Türk ve İrlandalı öğretmen adaylarının öğretmenlik mesleğinin gün geçtikçe çekiciliğini ve önemini kaybettiğini belirttiklerini de öne sürmektedir. İki gruptaki katılımcıların görüşleri eğitim aldıkları ve yaşadıkları kültürel durumdan da oldukça etkilenmektedir. Türk öğretmen adayları öğretmenliğin kutsal bir meslek olduğunu ve özveri gerektirdiğine inanma eğilimdeyken, İrlandalı adaylar bu görüşe katılmamaktadır. Benzer şekilde, Türk katılımcıların yarıdan çoğu öğretmenlik mesleğinin stres yarattığını belirtirken, çok az sayıda İrlandalı katılımcı bu yoruma katılmaktadır

Çalışmanın sonuçlarının eğitimcilerin ve araştırmacıların, öğretmen yetiştiren kurumların aday öğretmenlerin öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik olumlu tutum geliştirmelerine yardımcı olup olmadığını anlamalarına yardımcı olması umulmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Pedagojik formasyon, öğretmen adayı, öğretmen eğitimi, öğretmenlik mesleği, tutum, orta öğretim öğretmenliği.

Introduction

The role of the teacher in influencing the future of a society cannot be underestimated.

Teachers, as practitioners of education, educate the children and youth to become responsible,

sensitive, tolerant and productive members of society. In order to fulfil these important functions it

is vital that the teachers respect and dedicate themselves to the profession. In short teachers must have positive attitudes towards the teaching profession.

Attitudes embody an individual's like or dislike of a phenomenon (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975).

That is, they refer to individuals’ tendencies to assess an object, situation, or characteristic in a

Teacher Candidates' Attitudes Towards The Teaching Profession – Worrying Trends 531



positive or negative manner. Teachers’ attitudes represent their perceptions about the teaching

profession. Undoubtedly, teachers’ attitudes towards their chosen career have an important influence on their achievement and competence (Güneyli & Aslan 2009). Consequently, if it is

intended to improve the quality of the education system then teacher education should be a focal

point of reform and improvement. It follows that teacher education is of paramount importance and of great research interest (Güleç & Kara 2000; Özdayı 2000; Sezgin 2002; Sünbül, Yalman &

Baykal 2001).

No matter how well planned and implemented teacher training programs may be if the teacher candidates have negative attitudes towards the teaching profession, they will not be

successful and efficient. Thus researching teacher candidates' attitudes will help teacher educators

and researchers to gain insight about whether suitable candidates are choosing to become teachers

or not, and to understand whether the teacher training institutions help the teacher candidates to have positive attitudes toward the teaching profession. To further this objective the present study

aims to examine the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the teaching profession taking into

account key variables including gender and institution.

The paper begins with the investigation of teacher education systems of Turkey and

Ireland. It then goes forward the comparison of two geographically distinct groups of teacher

candidates’ attitudes.

Literature Review

The Changing Face of Teacher Education

The expectations of society from teachers is increasing each passing day, so today teaching

profession is more than simply to teach something. Knowing only the subject matter is not enough to become a successful teacher any more. One of the most important factors to improve the quality

of education is to increase teacher qualifications. OECD (2005) report also noted that teachers are

the central factors in school development efforts. Since, one of the most important factors affecting student achievement is teacher quality, to improve the effectiveness of education and to ensure

equality in education, well-trained and proficient people must be assigned as a teacher.

Bhave (2008) criticized the perspectives of teacher candidates’ about the meaning of

teaching profession. According to him, the teaching profession cannot be seen as the only teach something. He stated that becoming a teacher do not mean that to stay distant to all practices that

help people to be successful in life, to be incapable of learning new things, to be unmindful of all

kinds of manual labor and to live sink into the books. “Only to teach” means to be dead that detached from the life.

Today the requirements of teaching profession have changed. Unlike other professions,

teachers are generally loaded with many expectations from society (Punch & Tuetteman,

1996). To be precise, getting high scores on academic aptitude test results is not enough for new

teachers to meet the expectations of the schools. Teachers need to have an ability to express ideas in a clear and considerable way, to generate effective learning atmospheres for diverse student

needs, and to create dynamic teacher-student relationship. Moreover, new teachers should become

excited and innovative, and work well with colleagues and parents (OECD, 2005). For that reason, teacher education programs should change in accordance with the demands of society.

Teacher Education in Turkey

Teacher education is perceived as a critical issue in the development of the Turkish education system. Many different models of teacher education have been implemented since the

declaration of the Turkish Republic. To educate new generations in respect of the needs and ideals




of the republic teachers have the most critical responsibilities (Kaygas, 1999). For this reason, the

selection, training and employment processes of teacher candidates is considered to be a major research topic and was defined as such in October 1983 in the Turkish Grand National Assembly

(TBMM) (Tekışık, 1994). The government and many educators set out to bring real and

meaningful change to teacher education in Turkey. A rapid re-structuring was commenced in the teacher education system, designed to educate teachers in line with the new guidelines established

by the Basic Education Reform (Şevik, 2002, Yıldırım & Ok, 2002). Teacher education programs’

admission standards were raised, and new departments specialising in classroom teaching were established (Yıldırım & Ok, 2002).

In order to meet the short- and long-term goals of education policy teacher education in the

education faculties has been restructured in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education

(MONE) and the Council of Higher Education (CHE) as a part of the National Education Development Project (NEDP). The needs of the teaching profession have changed and in

consequence the initial teacher-training curricula of all education faculties were standardized by

CHE in the 1997-98 academic year. More recently, through the National Education Development Project (NEDP) the obstacles that decrease schooling rate were taken into consideration, and in

order to cope with those obstacles various reforms were realized (Özoğlu 2010). There were no

generally enforced standards for either the licensing or accreditation of teachers until 1998. In order to meet the new demands for highly educated teachers for elementary schools, in 1998, the Council

of Higher Education (CHE) revised all education faculties’ initial teacher education programs

(Saban, 2003). Elementary school teacher education program curricula were rearranged, and

pedagogy courses were given greater emphasis. Where the class size is not so big, especially village schools, only one teacher is appointed to these schools in order to both educate students and

administer the school, thus, teachers have to teach more than one grade in the same classroom as

well as to administer the school. Generally the numbers of students in each classroom grade differ. Since lesson planning is a crucial part of the teaching-learning process, the teachers have to prepare

the lesson plans according to both the individual differences and classroom grades of pupils

(Taneri, 2004). All prospective teachers are expected to know how to plan a lesson especially for

mixed level classrooms. This view reinforced by Taneri and Ok (2014), they suggested that teacher education programs must offer prospective teachers more knowledge about instruction in mixed

level classrooms. In order to teach the teacher candidates to prepare mixed level classroom lesson

plans, as well as teaching them at the same time in the same classroom, teaching ‘compound’ classroom course was added in teacher education programs The amount of teaching practice

courses were increased by adding School Experience I and II to the curriculum. As a result present

initial teacher education programs require the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the three principal domains—content area, general culture, and pedagogic content.

Generally, teacher education programs now mandate subject matter knowledge, knowledge

of the culture of the teaching profession and field practice (Karagözoğlu, 1996; Küçükahmet,

Değirmencioğlu, Uğuzman, Öksüzoğlu, Özdemir & Korkmaz 2000). Programs are designed to educate teacher candidates and equip them with professional skills by offering a curriculum

including specific and real classroom experiences (Ersoy 1997). Through these measures

politicians, academicians and researchers have invested major effort and time on teacher education in an attempt to increase the competence of teacher candidates and inculcate positive attitudes

towards the teaching profession.

The Pedagogic Formation Programs

The pedagogic formation programs have been designed for graduates of literature and arts

faculties. With the changes in the teacher education system in Turkey outlined above the graduates




from different majors are required to obtain a teaching certificate in order to be appointed as

secondary school teachers or to work in private education. Currently, three prerequisites are deemed to be necessary to becoming secondary school teachers: graduation from any university

department of literature and arts faculties, having a teaching certificate and passing the Public

Service Selection Exam Kamu Personeli Seçme Sınavı-KPSS (YÖK, 2007; Erarslan, 2004). Twenty three universities that meet the necessary requirements of providing a suitable pedagogic formation program began to train graduates of literature and arts faculties since the beginning of

2012-13 academic year (www.yok.gov.tr).

The purpose of pedagogic formation programs is to offer knowledge of the teaching

profession and teaching practice in schools in order to train teacher candidates. These courses are designed to provide opportunities to teacher candidates to gain an understanding of classroom

management, child development and learning, student assessment, lesson planning, instruction

methods and counselling. Generally, the duration of pedagogic formation programs cover whole academic year (i.e. two semesters with 14 weeks). However, in 2013–2014 academic year Higher

Education Council (YÖK) forced universities to complete this education only one semester. In

addition, beginning from 2013–2014 academic year, the students are placed the institutions

according to their scores on the entry exam of academic personal and post graduate education (ALES) by the Student Selection and Placement Center (OSYM) (www.yok.gov.tr).

The teacher candidates attend courses on theory and have practice in real classroom

settings during the pedagogic formation program. These courses and practices help teacher candidates to become competent in using instructional methods, gain an understanding about the

teaching process including the instructional goals of the curriculum and learning styles, develop

instructional strategies to handle difficulties in teaching, learn to share experiences with colleagues, and develop methodologies for teaching the subject matter. The pedagogic formation

programs provide teacher candidates with knowledge about teaching and learning, through

professional courses (Table 1).

Table 1The Distribution of Pedagogic Formation Courses

Name of the Course Theory Practice Credit

Introduction to Educational Sciences 2 0 2

Developmental Psychology 2 0 2 Curriculum Development and

Instruction 2 0 2

Measurement and Evaluation 2 0 2 Classroom Management 2 0 2 Learning-Teaching Theories and

Approaches 2 0 2

Special Instruction Methods 3 2 4 Instructional Technology and

Development of Material 2 2 3

Guidance 2 0 2 Teaching Practice 2 6 5 Total 21 10 26

Source: YÖK, 2013.

http://www.memurlar.net/




With the new regulations the compulsory and elective courses have changed in 2013-2014

academic year (Table 2, Table 3).

Table 2. The Distribution of Pedagogic Formation Compulsory Courses in 2013-14


Introduction to Educational Sciences 2 0 2

Learning-Teaching Theories and Approaches

2 0 2

Measurement and Evaluation 2 0 2 Educational Psychology 2 0 2 Classroom Management 2 0 2 Elective Course I 2 0 2 Elective Course II 2 0 2 Special Instruction Methods 2 2 3 Instructional Technology and

Development of Material 2 2 3

Teaching Practice 2 6 5 Total 20 14 25

Table 3. The Distribution of Pedagogic Formation Elective Courses in 2013-14


Curriculum Development and Instruction

2 0 2

Action Research in Education 2 0 2 Educational History 2 0 2 Educational Sociology 2 0 2 Developmental Psychology 2 0 2 Guidance 2 0 2 Using Technology in Education 2 0 2

Educational Philosophy 2 0 2

Turkish Education History 2 0 2

Turkish Education System and School

Administration 2 0 2

Professional Ethics of Teaching 2 0 2 Life Long Learning 2 0 2 Individualized Instruction 2 0 2 Character and Values Education 2 0 2

Special Education 2 0 2

Computer Assisted Education 2 0 2 Source: www.yok.gov.tr

Teacher Education in Ireland

Teaching has always been regarded as a high status profession in Ireland and has attracted

a very high quality of entrant by international standards). It is estimated that candidates for teacher education are drawn from the top fifteen per cent of the national student cohort. (Coolahan 2007)




Until recently teacher education was left largely in the hands of the Universities and

Teacher training Colleges. The latter prepared teachers for Primary schools in the course of a three year program while the former offered a one year full time teacher education course to graduates

who wished to enter Secondary school teaching. Teacher education programs consisted of courses

in the ‘foundation disciplines’ of education including History of Education, Philosophy of Education, Sociology, Psychology and Curriculum (which includes teaching methods, course

development, student assessment and counselling), classroom management, ‘special methods’

courses on teaching ones particular subjects and supervised practice in schools. Standards were, by and large, set and monitored by the Higher Education Institutions although the Inspectorate also

had an important role in evaluating new teachers in the first year of their work in school post

qualification. ( Teaching Council of Ireland, 2011a) The main criticism of this approach to teacher

education was that the programs, in particular the one year course for post primary teaching was too brief to allow for real development but since the Irish education system was highly regarded at

home and abroad the situation was regarded as largely satisfactory (Waldron, et. al. 2012)

Two developments, namely international trends and poor results in the recent international pupil performance tests known as ‘PISA’, have significantly changed this view. An OECD Report

(2005) showed clearly that most countries increasingly recognized that teacher and school principal

preparation were vital to improved student performance and the PISA results of 2009 showed that Ireland was suffering from a decline in comparative standards. For example in the 2009 results

Irelands position on the reading tests fell from fifth place in 2000 to 17th in 2009. (OECD, 2010) In

response the Government developed an emergency strategy to tackle this decline in standards in

both literacy and numeracy. Among the key areas addressed in this policy was the need to improve the professional practice of teachers through changes in both pre-service and in-service teacher

education. (Department of Education and Skills, 2011).

As a result a major reform of teacher education in Ireland in now underway. Initial teacher education programs for primary and second-level education teachers are now accredited by a newly

established body, the Teaching Council. It is charged with reviewing and accrediting programs of

initial teacher education, including standards for entry, course content, student assessment and

placement in schools. Every teacher education institution has been required to revise program content and demonstrate that the curriculum is coherent and follows the standards set out by the

Teaching Council. However the basic content of teacher education courses remains largely as

outlined above with the addition of mandatory modules on the inclusion of literacy and numeracy in all subject areas (Teaching Council, 2011b)

School placement which was known as ‘teaching practice’ is now referred to as ‘clinical

placement’ is of longer duration than in the past and involves both academics and school leaders in the monitoring of student performance. As part of these reforms the duration of teacher preparation

courses has also been increased with primary teachers now taking a four year course and graduates

entering secondary education taking a two year fulltime program of teacher training to add

pedagogic skills and knowledge to their existing subject specialisms (Teaching Council, 2013)

The objective of these changes is, it is suggested, to place teaching on a par with high

status professions. This will be achieved by continuing to attract high quality students who will

choose teaching despite having other options. Their training will be expanded and include high quality subject and pedagogic knowledge delivered in intensely research driven University

education departments. Teachers will be encouraged to see themselves as researchers and to

proceed to higher levels of qualifications, with Masters Degrees becoming the norm. Above all school placements, re-conceptualized as clinical placements will involve a much more structured




role for school leaders and highly trained master teachers to ensure that on site learning in schools

is more extensive and effective than heretofore (Teaching Council, 2011c)

All of these reforms, while desirable are of course resource intensive and expensive. In

reality the funding allocated to teacher education has declined since the current recession began and

teacher salaries, in particular for new entrants have been reduced. Also there are few permanent jobs in teaching and now up to one third of teachers are in temporary posts. In fact there is a great

danger that these reforms, in particular, by making the period in training longer than before will

have the opposite impact to that desired by making teaching less attractive to able students with other options (Waldron, et. al., 2013).

The impact of teacher education reform on the attitudes of student teachers

From the above review of international trends in teacher education it is clear that reform in

this area is seen as a key priority across the globe. In the case of Turkey and Ireland the most significant recent developments have been outlined. It is interesting to note that the direction of

reform in both countries is very similar and is clearly influenced by the desire to compete with

those countries seen to be performing well in international comparative tests and by the policy prescriptions of influential international bodies such as the OECD.

Teacher education programs in both countries now include a core of general education,

coursework and field experience in actual classroom settings. In theory, these programs try to prepare teachers for their professional roles. Teachers who are well trained feel self-confident and

have positive attitudes to the profession. As a result, they are likely to be able to manage the

classroom more effectively and their students will attain higher levels of achievement (Tanrıöğen,

1996). Consequently, both pedagogical knowledge and subject knowledge are essential and interrelated components in successful teacher education programs. However, and most importantly,

positive and supportive attitudes towards their roles and professional responsibilities are, it is

argued in this paper, the most important aspect of teacher professionalism.

Yet in spite of excellent preparation in pedagogic formation programs, teacher candidates

may not develop the most important attribute of the teacher, namely love of the job and positive

attitudes towards the teaching profession. Indeed it could be argued that the reforms outlined are

rather technician in tone and content and take a rather reductive and behaviorist view of what it means to be a teacher. In none of these reform documents does one find much reference to love of

subject and still less to love of imparting knowledge to young people. What effect on the attitudes

and morale of candidate teachers is all this reform having? How do these future teachers feel about their chosen profession? This study aims to explore the attitudes of teacher candidates and

compare these attitudes according to gender, and institute. It is the study of this issue that forms the

remainder of this paper.

Methodology

In the present study with the purpose of examining current attitudes of Turkish and Irish

teacher candidates a comparative research approach (Sztompka, 1979) was adopted. This study

compared 298 teacher candidates from Cankiri and Dublin in terms of their attitudes towards and their worries about the future of the teaching profession.

Participants

The sample of this study was study consists of a total of 298 teacher candidates studying at Cankiri Karatekin University and at Teacher Education Institutions in Dublin (a non-probability

sample) who volunteered to participate in the study. The reason for selecting these two cities was

that one of the researchers was a lecturer at Cankiri Karatekin University and the other was a




visiting scholar in the city of Dublin. The characteristics of participants in both countries were

comprehensively described in the following sections.

Turkish Participants

The Pedagogical Formation Program is an eight-month program organized as a

professional teacher training course by educational sciences departments of universities. 180 teacher candidates were administered a questionnaire during their teacher education program. In

total, 154 teacher candidates (response rate 85.5 %) completed this questionnaire. Of this sample,

64.9 percent of the responding teacher candidates were female, and 35.1 percent of them were male. 51.3 percent of the respondents were between 22 and 25 years old, 29.9 percent of them

between 26 and 29 years old and the remaining 18.8% were above 30 years old.

Participants were grouped by subject, mathematics, science, social sciences, arts, and other

branches. 18.8 percent of the teacher candidates graduated from mathematics. Science covers graduates of physics, chemistry and biology (17.5%). Social sciences cover teacher candidates who

graduated from geography, philosophy, sociology, theology, history, literature, and the Turkish

language (42.2%). Arts cover visual arts, fine arts, graphical design, art history, and art teacher candidates (12.3%). Also included are graduates of nursing, English language and literature,

physical education, early childhood education, and computerized educational technologies (9.1%).

The distribution of teacher candidates who responded to the questionnaire according to gender, age and departments is summarized in Table 4.

Table 4. Gender, Age, and Departments of Teachers

Department

Mathematics Sciences Social

Sciences

Arts Other

branches

Total

Age Gender f % f % f % f % f % f %

22-25

F

emale

15 9.7 6 3.9 22 14.3 8 5.

2

6 3.9 57 37.0

M

ale

5 3.3 2 1.3 13 8.4 0 0.

0

0 0.0 20 13.0

T

otal

20 13.0 8 5.2 35 22.7 1 0.

7

6 3.9 70 50.0

2

6-29

Female 3 2.0 3 2.0 14 9.1 1 0.7

2 1.3 23 14.9

Male 5 3.3 4 2.6 7 4.6 2 1.

3

0 0.0 18 11.7

Total 8 5.2 7 4.6 21 13.6 2 1.

3

2 1.3 40 26.6

30 + Female 0 0.0 5 3.3 5 3.3 6 3.

8

5 3.3 21 13.6

Male 1 0.7 7 4.5 4 2.6 8 5.

2

1 0.7 21 13.6

Total 1 0.7 12 7.8 9 5.9 8 5.

2

6 3.8 36 23.3

Grand Total 29 18.83 27 17.53 65 42.21 11 7.14 14 9.09 154 100.0




Irish Participants

170 attitude scales were administered and 144 of them returned (response rate 84%). Of this sample, 70.2 percent of the responding teacher candidates were female, and 29.8 percent of them

were male.

Data Collection Instrument

The researchers developed a five point Attitude Scale and data sheet as the main data

collection instrument. The development procedures were expert opinion and review of relevant

literature to ensure validity, reliability and internal consistency. In order to develop the attitude scale, items from similar studies were collected in an item pool. Some examples were Gun (2012),

Güneyli and Aslan (2009), Ottekin-Demirbolat (2006), Özgür (1994), and Sayın (2005). Since

there are some cultural differences among Turkish and Irish participants, the questions about the

age and branch of Irish teacher candidates were excluded from the questionnaire.

The five points Likert scale was subjected to exploratory factor analysis. The scree plot

indicated that our initial hypothesis on unidimensionality was incorrect. Consequently, four factors

were rotated using a Varimax rotation procedure. The rotated solutions, as shown in Table 5, yielded four interpretable factors. The factor 1 – self as a future teacher —accounted for 37.1% of

the total variance, the factor 2— teaching as a profession —accounted for 9.49 %, of the total

variance, the factor 3— negative perceptions about teaching profession —accounted for 6.7 % of the total variance, and the factor 4— worries about the image and status of teaching profession in

society —accounted for 4.50 % of the total variance. Cronbach alpha tests indicated a high internal

consistency, which was .92.

Table 5. Four interpretable factors

Items Factor loads

Factor 1: Self as a future teacher

1- I like teaching profession. .766

2- I am interested in the teaching profession. .766

3- I believe I will become successful in the teaching profession. .634

4- I am willing to become a teacher. .819

15- I think the teaching profession is more important than other professions.

.462

16- I would not prefer any other profession to teaching. .737

20- Teaching profession is enjoyable. .663

23- I am proud of myself, because I will become a teacher. .759

24- I do not think to work as a teacher. .487

29- I believe in that teaching profession will change me in a positive way.

.610

Factor 2: Teaching as a profession

5- I have respect for the teaching profession. .812

6- I appreciate to the teaching profession. .793

11- Teaching profession is a holly profession. .806

13- I believe that teaching profession requires self-sacrifice. .713

19- Teaching is a profession that requires special expertise.. .434

25- Teaching profession is a beneficial profession. .488

27- Teaching profession is serious profession. .750




Factor 3: Negative perceptions about the teaching profession

8- Teaching profession is not appropriate to me. .414

9- Teaching profession is boring. .638

12- I'm afraid of being a teacher. .608

14- It is a misfortune for me to choose the teaching profession. .653

17- I do not want to hear even the name of the teaching profession. .642

18- Teaching profession is a profession that anyone can perform. .588

28- Teaching profession is a regular profession. .623

30- I have forced to prefer the teaching profession. .542

Factor 4: Worries about the image and status of teaching profession in society

7- I think the teaching profession has lost its attractiveness. .652

10- Teaching is a profession that degrades a person. .623

21- Teaching profession has lost its importance day by day. .591

22- Teaching profession is a profession that creates stress. .722

26- Teaching profession does not have a respect in society. .609

The researchers first translated the attitude scale into English and had it reviewed by native

speakers, who were the academic staff of Dublin City University Department of Educational

Studies. Then, Turkish researchers translated it back to Turkish to identify discrepancies. In order

to allow the participants to create responses within their cultural and social experiences open-ended questions were used in the survey (Neuman, 2000).

Data Collection Procedures

The data were collected during 2012-2013 academic year by the researchers. The collection procedure includes two phases. In the first phase, in order to collect the data easily an electronic

survey method was used (Creswell, 2008). First data set were collected among Turkish teacher

candidates from the Pedagogical Formation Program at Cankiri Karatekin University. In the second

phase, data were collected among Irish teacher candidates from the Teacher Education Institutions in Dublin by using paper surveys.

The questionnaires were administered to 350 teacher candidates. Of the 350 teacher

candidates, 298 teacher candidates (154 Turkish, 144 Irish) completed and returned the questionnaires. 52 of the questionnaires were not appropriate to use and therefore were excluded

from the analysis, the response rate was 85%.

Analysis of Data

The data gathered were subject to descriptive statistical analysis procedures. The data from

the questionnaire was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics to interrogate the proportion of

each sample of teacher candidates holding particular attitudes.

FINDINGS AND RESULTS

The findings obtained through investigating teacher candidates’ attitudes toward the

teaching profession in terms of the variables described above variables are summarized below. The

mean scores of Turkish teacher candidates ranged from 1.22 to 4.95, and Irish teacher candidates ranged from 1.27 to 4.73 out of 5).

The findings showed that both Turkish and Irish teacher candidates have positive attitudes

towards teaching profession. The results of Turkish and Irish teacher candidates were given

respectively. Nearly all of the respondents appreciate the teaching profession (98.7%, 97.2%), and




have a respect for the teaching profession (98.1%, 97.2%).

Similarly, most of the teacher candidates stated that the teaching profession is serious (96.1%, 97.9%). 93.5 percent of the Turkish, and 83.4 percent of the Irish teacher candidates

believe that they will be successful in the teaching profession, think that the teaching profession

requires special expertise. The teacher candidates stated that teaching is a beneficial profession (93.5%, 94.4%). 92.9 percent of the Turkish and 93.8 percent of the Irish prospective teachers like

and interested in the teaching profession (90.9%, 95.2%). The teacher candidates also believe in

that the teaching profession will change them in a positive way (89.0 %, 82.7%). Similarly, 74.0 percent of Turkish and 41.7 percent of Irish teacher candidates think that the teaching profession is

more important than other professions.

On the other hand, in both countries many of the teacher candidates believe that the

teaching profession degrades a person (59.7%, 72.9%). Likewise, 38.3 percent of the Turkish and 51.4 percent of the Irish respondents emphasized that the teaching profession has lost its

importance in the current era. Many of the prospective teachers think that the teaching profession

has lost its attractiveness (31.8 %, 53.4%). In addition, 8.4 percent of them were undecided and 2.6 percent of them do not willing to work as a teacher after taking the certificate.

Both Turkish and Irish teacher candidates stated that teaching is not for everyone (92.2%,

86.1%). Although most of the Turkish teacher candidates believe that the teaching profession requires self-sacrifice (96.8%), nearly half of the Irish teacher candidates do not believe in this

(49.3%). Most of Turkish teacher candidates stated that the teaching profession is a sacred

vocation (95.5 %), while only 61.1 percent of the Irish teacher candidates agree with this view.

More than half of the Turkish teacher candidates declared that teaching profession is a profession that creates stress (51.9%), however, the Irish teacher candidates do not agree with this view

(11.8%). Only 20.1 percent of Turkish respondents think that teaching profession does not have a

respect in society, whereas more than half of the Irish respondents believe in this (56.9%).

CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS

This study examined teacher candidates’ attitudes towards the teaching profession.

According to the findings, most of the teacher candidates have very positive attitudes towards their

chosen profession. There are many research studies aimed to determine the attitude of prospective teachers in different branches towards the teaching profession (Bulut, 2009; Bozkırlı, & Er, 2011;

Erdem, 2012; Güneyli & Aslan 2009; Tanrıöğen, 1996; Temizkan, 2008; Terzi & Tezci, 2007).

The findings of the present study are in broad agreement with many other studies that investigated prospective teachers’ attitudes towards the teaching profession (Çetinkaya 2009, Çigdem & Memiş

2011, Eş 2010, Kartal, Kaya, Öztürk, Ekici 2012, Özder, Konedralı & Zeki 2010). It can be

concluded that the prospective teachers are highly motivated by the basic features of teaching such as working with children and young students, helping the students to gain values of society, and

having the respect and approval of society.

It was found that most of the teacher candidates appreciate and have a respect for the

teaching profession. When the literature reviewed it was found that in ancient times the churches were responsible for teaching reading and writing, so the people consider literacy teaching as a

sacred career till 1900s. In1921 the teaching reading and writing responsibility passed from

churches to the classroom teachers, as a result teachers gained the respect and admiration of society (Simola, 2005). In their study on the attitudes of the Anatolian Teacher Training High School

students towards teaching profession Gülçelen, Cüro, and Semerci (2008) have reached

conclusions that support this finding. That is, they claimed that the teaching profession requires sacrifice and it is a sacred profession. The views of participants of both groups were seriously




influenced by the cultural contexts in which they trained and lived. Turkish teacher candidates

tended to believe in that the teaching profession is a sacred profession and it requires self-sacrifice while Irish teacher candidates do not agree this notion.

Actually, to be a teacher really requires serious effort and persistence, thus, it is not for

everyone. Since teaching is a demanding profession, and it is not possible for everyone to be a successful specialist and to sustain that over the long-term, both Turkish and Irish participants

stated that teaching requires an ability to teach, knowledge of subject matter, and positive attitudes

towards teaching. Consequently, the teaching profession is not appropriate for everyone. The results of the present study highlighted that the vast majority of teacher candidates were confident

that they will be effective in the teaching profession. The results also showed that many of the

teacher candidates have a confidence in that teaching profession will change them in a positive

way. Similarly, both Turkish and Irish teacher candidates think that the teaching profession is more important than other professions.

In contrast, the results revealed that both Turkish and Irish teacher candidates have some

worries about the future of teaching profession. Turkish and Irish teacher candidates claimed that teaching profession has lost its importance and attractiveness day by day. There are several

differences among Turkish and Irish participants. Whilst the Turkish teacher participants think that

the teaching profession requires self-sacrifice, half of the Irish participants do not agree with them. It can be concluded that the meaning attributed to the teaching profession can be change from

culture to culture.

Likewise, while more than half of the Turkish participants stated that teaching profession

creates stress, only small proportion of the Irish participants agree with this interpretation. Although in many cultures, throughout the history, teachers are given the highest respect and hold

the esteemed positions in society, the results showed that Turkish teacher candidates believe that

teaching profession does not have a respect in society. By the way, Abazaoğlu, Yıldırım, and Yıldızhan (2014), point out that most of the teachers stated that the teaching profession does not

appreciated by the society.

The present study showed that although Turkish respondents have worries about the social

status of the teaching profession, the Irish respondents believe in that teaching profession has a respect in society. It can be concluded that more great people want to become teachers because of

economic reasons. That is there are no more working opportunities for the youngster in Turkey.

The OECD (2005) report also supported this finding that when the overall economy is not strong and graduate unemployment is high, more graduates choose for a teaching career. Like Finnish

society, teaching approved as a sacred responsibility in Turkish culture. However, nowadays this

perception is changing gradually in Turkey. Teaching is seen as a warranty of having a job with long holidays. As a consequence of economic crisis many students prefer to become a teacher not

because of loving the profession, but they think that instead of to become unemployed “as a

minimum” they can be employed as teachers (Erarslan, 2009). In the same way, Bozkırlı and Er

(2011) exposed that the teaching profession may be chosen just for economic reasons by the teacher candidates.

The sample for the current study included only the students of Cankiri Karatekin

University and of Teacher Education Institutions in Dublin. More comprehensive and widespread investigations about the attitudes of teacher candidates towards the teaching profession could

provide better information for teacher training institutions.

Since the eagerness and self-confidence of the existing teaching staff are crucial effects on future teacher supply, the attractiveness and social status of the teaching profession should be




increased. Future research on the prospective teachers should be addressed on the worries of

teacher candidates.

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TEACHER CANDIDATES' ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE TEACHING PROFESSION – WORRYING TRENDS

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