You Don't Bring Me Flowers Any More: A Fresh Look at the Vexed Issue of Teacher Status

Abstract

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.

Keywords

social status job satisfaction status need role community attitudes professional recognition

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