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Article Excerpt
Teachers in recent years have expressed a great deal of dissatisfaction with their status in society, consistently citing it as one of the most negative aspects of their role. Numerous studies have demonstrated that teachers believe their status in Australian society to be poor and their work undervalued. However, surveys of the Australian public have shown that the majority views both schools and teachers positively, believing that teachers are dedicated to their students, and that schools in general achieve their educational goals reasonably well. The study set out to explore the reasons behind the discrepancy between teachers' beliefs about their status, and the good opinion of teachers expressed by the public in such surveys. In addition, the research literature reveals that concern about professional status, while more intense in recent times, has been evident amongst teachers for many decades. This suggests that, while changes to society and teaching may be intensifying teachers' concerns, there may also be structural aspects to the work of teaching that contribute to teachers' unhappiness about their status. The study identified both structural and contextual contributors to the problem, and a tentative schema of factors contributing to teachers' perceptions about their status was developed.
Introduction
In a time of looming teacher shortages, with increasing rhetoric about the need to develop a 'knowledge society', the standing of teachers in society has attracted a great deal of attention from academics, the popular press, and from teachers themselves. The general consensus, particularly amongst teachers, is that their status is poor, their work undervalued and their contribution to the future prosperity and well-being of Australian society underestimated.
Research into teacher satisfaction indicates that the intrinsic rewards of teaching, centred on student achievement, personal growth and relationships with colleagues, still provide teachers with a great deal of satisfaction (Dinham, 1995, 2000; Dinham & Scott, 1997, 1998a, 1998b). Dissatisfaction with their status in society, however, is one of the most consistent findings of the research: teachers overwhelmingly regard their status in society as a very strong negative aspect of their work (Dinham, 1997, 2000; Dinham & Scott, 1997, 1998a, 1998b; Ministerial Advisory Council on the Quality of Teaching, 1997; Senate Employment, Education and Training References Committee [SEETRC], 1998; Watson & Hatton, 2002). Teachers' negative perceptions of their status are so strong that many are reluctant to admit that they are teachers in social settings, and a large number discourage their own students or offspring from entering the profession (Langdon, 1996; SEETRC, 1998).
These perceptions on the part of teachers are important for a range of reasons. As noted, teachers' negative beliefs about their status are a major contributor to teacher dissatisfaction (Dinham, 2000; Watson & Hatton, 2002). Scott and Dinham (2001) observe that, 'research into occupational satisfaction demonstrates that a dissatisfied workforce is a less productive one that is prone to expensive behaviours such as absenteeism and ... stress leave' (p. 4). So in the first instance, teacher dissatisfaction about status is likely to stimulate behaviour that augments costs for education systems and increases instability in schools. Second, teachers' dissatisfaction with their status can contribute to their decisions to resign from the profession (Billingsley, 1993; Dinham, 1992, cited in Dinham, 2000). Thus, teachers' beliefs about their status lead to a loss of expertise from the education system, as experienced teachers leave to be replaced by inexperienced ones. Teacher resignations also lead to increased administrative costs to the system in staff turnover, and to increased staff workloads in schools that employ at the local level and must therefore advertise for and interview applicants. Third, dissatisfaction with teacher status leads teachers to dissuade others from entering the profession, particularly students of high academic ability (Figgis, 1997; Langdon, 1996; SEETRC, 1998). These last two reasons take on particular importance in times of teacher shortage, such as is projected in parts of Australia in the near future (Preston, 2000).
The research in the field, however, is problematic for several reasons. One major issue is the difficulty in defining the status construct. Dictionary meanings frequently focus on the rankings comparing people or professions (for example, The Macquarie Dictionary--Delbridge, Bernard, Blair, Peters, & Butler, 1995), and a great deal of research on such rankings has been carried out in the field of sociology (1). Hoyle (1995) summarised the research on teaching by noting that teaching is consistently placed lower than the major professions (for example, medicine and architecture), relatively highly within the group of public and personal service professions (nursing, police work, etc.) and high in the range of all occupations.
However, an examination of teachers' responses in the qualitative work on teacher status indicates that teachers, when complaining of poor status, are referring to something much broader than the ranking of the profession in relation to others, although this is one focus of concern. Teachers' dissatisfaction with their status incorporates such diverse matters as criticism of the profession in the media, parental support for discipline, and the belief that teaching is perceived by the public to be easy work, which is paradoxically poorly performed (SEETRC, 1998). Dinham and Scott (1998b) note in an international study that there is amongst teachers, 'the perception that the general community does not value or appreciate ... what teachers and schools do, something that is reflected in the poor way teachers in all three countries [Australia, New Zealand and England] believe they are regarded by society' (p. 10). What teachers mean when voicing concerns about status is multifaceted, incorporating appreciation of the complexity and demands of teaching as much as the relative ranking of the profession (2).
A second important issue rarely raised in the literature on teacher status is that it concerns teachers' beliefs about their status--the essence of the teacher status problem is that teachers believe society holds them in poor repute. Yet while little Australian research appears to have been done ascertaining public opinion about teachers, that which has been carried out tends to show that opinion about teachers and schools is a great deal better than teachers might imagine. Churchill, Kelly and Mulford's (1999) study carried out a national telephone survey of over 1200 Australian adults concerning their perceptions of schools, teachers and their...
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