Social Status and Professional Development of Early Childhood and Preschool Teacher Profession: Sociological and Pedagogical Theoretical Frame / Društveni status i profesionalni razvoj profesije odgajatelja rane i predškolske dobi

Abstract

AbstractThis paper theoretically and empirically deals with the relationship between the concepts of social status and professional development of early childhood and preschool teachers' profession, while discussing the possibility of complementing two dominantly sociological and pedagogical traditions from which they derived. Low social status of early childhood and preschool teacher profession has not been significantly improved, neither in the context of continuous emerging of new professions in the late modernity, neither in the context of flourishing of different approaches to professional development. For this reason, we were interested in determining the attitudes of early childhood and preschool teachers about the position and relevance of their profession in our society, as well as whether there is a connection between the mentioned attitudes and early childhood and preschool teachers’ attitudes to professional development. We conducted a survey in December 2013 on the sample of N=270 early childhood and preschool teachers in the area of Zagreb and Rijeka. The results showed that early childhood and preschool teachers believe they perform an extremely responsible job which is professionally and materially undermined in our society. However, the results also showed that there is a certain connection between positive cultures of educational institutions, professional development of early childhood and preschool teachers and their positive perception of the social status of early childhood and preschool teacher profession. This connection should be  explored further since it opens a space for discussion about the possibilities in shifting the social status of the profession by implementing the action from below, in a micro-context.Key words: early childhood and preschool education; early childhood and preschool teacher’s perspective; early childhood and preschool teacher profession; professional development; professionalism; social status 
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SažetakRad se na teorijskoj i empirijskoj razini bavi odnosom koncepata društvenog statusa i profesionalnog razvoja odgajateljske profesije. Problematizira se mogućnost dopunjavanja dominantno sociološke i pedagoške tradicije iz kojih su proistekli. Nizak društveni status odgajateljske profesije nije bitno poboljšan ni u kontekstu neprestanog nastajanja novih profesija u društvu kasne modernosti, ni u kontekstu bujanja različitih pristupa profesionalnom razvoju. Zato nas je zanimalo kakvi su stavovi odgajatelja o položaju i ugledu njihove profesije u našem društvu te postoji li povezanost navedenih stavova s odnosom odgajatelja prema profesionalnom razvoju. U prosincu 2013. godine metodom ankete provedeno je istraživanje na uzorku od N=270 odgajatelja ranog i predškolskog odgoja i obrazovanja na području Zagreba i Rijeke. Rezultati su pokazali da odgajatelji smatraju da obavljaju iznimno odgovoran posao koji je profesionalno, statusno i materijalno podcijenjen u našem društvu. Međutim, iz rezultata proizlazi da postoji i određena povezanost između pozitivnih kultura odgojno-obrazovnih ustanova, profesionalnog razvoja odgajatelja i njegove pozitivnije percepcije društvenog statusa odgajateljske profesije. Ta bi povezanost trebala biti dodatno istražena budući da otvara prostor za raspravu o mogućnostima promjene društvenog statusa profesije djelovanjem odozdo, u mikrokontekstu.Ključne riječi: društveni status; odgajateljska perspektiva; odgajateljska profesija; profesionalizam; profesionalni razvoj; rani i predškolski odgoj i obrazovanje