A study of the prestige attributed to teachers of exceptional children was conducted. The subjects were 138 practicing teachers and college undergraduates completing a paired comparisons questionnaire. The results revealed that all teachers of exceptional children are judged to possess higher prestige than teachers of the nonexceptional. Teachers of the blind, deaf, gifted, emotionally disturbed, and severely mentally retarded are seen as possessing especially high standing.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BadtMargit I.Attitudes of university students toward exceptional children and special education. Exceptional Children, 1957, 23, 286–290.
2.
CountsG. S.The social status of occupations. School Review, 1925, 33, 16–27.
3.
DeegM. E., and PattersonD. G.Changes in social status of occupations. Occupations, 1947, 25, 205–208.
4.
GottfriedN. W., and JonesR. L.Career choice factors in special education. Exceptional Children, 1964, 30, 218–223.
5.
HallC. W.Social prestige values of a selected group of occupations. Psychological Bulletin, 1938, 35, 696.
6.
HattP. K., and NorthC. C.Jobs and occupations. A popular evaluation. Opinion News, 1947, 3–13.
7.
JonesR. L., and GottfriedN. W.Preferences and configurations of interest in special class teaching. Exceptional Children, 1962, 28, 371–377.
8.
JonesR. L., and GottfriedN. W.Some noncognitive correlates of satisfaction in teaching educable mentally retarded children. Paper read at American Educational Research Association, Chicago, September, 1963.
9.
JonesR. L., and GottfriedN. W.Psychological needs and preferences for teaching exceptional children. Exceptional Children, 1966, 32, 313–321.
10.
JonesR. L., GottfriedN. W., and OwensAngela. The social distance of the exceptional: a study at the high school level. Exceptional Children, in press.
11.
LehmanH. C., and WittyD. A.Further study of the social status of occupations. Journal of Educational Sociology, 1931, 5, 101–112.
12.
MeyersC. E.Realities in teacher recruitment. Mental Retardation, 1964, 2, 42–46.
13.
MurrayT., and Soeparman. Occupational prestige: Indonesia and America. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 1963, 41, 430–434.
14.
RichAnnette L.The status of teachers of the educable mentally retarded. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1960.
15.
RicheyR. W., FoxW. H., and FausetC. E.Prestige ranks of teaching. Occupations, 1951, 30, 33–36.
16.
SiegelS.Nonparametric statistics. New York: McGraw Hill, 1956.
17.
SimmonsD. C.Children's rankings of occupational prestige. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 1962, 41, 332–336.
18.
SmithM.An empirical scale of prestige status of occupations. American Sociological Review, 1943, 8, 185–192.
19.
WelchM. K.Ranking occupations on the basis of social status. Occupations, 1949, 27, 237–241.
