The book is the result of studies and research on the professional status of teachers from an international, comparative point of view. The first Italian workgroup, which met to discuss this subject in the summer of 2001, was progressively joined by groups of scholars from other countries, who were interested in giving a sense to teachers and value to their profession. The year 2004 saw the publication of data from the Italian and United States sides and, in 2005, the results from Poland were made known. Thoughts from Belgium, Cyprus and Libya were added in 2006 and joined by those of Slovakia and Turkey in 2007. For Poland, Belgium, Slovakia and Turkey, the academic meeting was supported by the annual conference of the European network, known as Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe Thematic Network, centrally coordinated by the Institute for Policy Studies in Education of London Metropolitan University, headed by Alistair Ross.The purveyance of the questionnaire for Cyprus and Libya was done by graduates following the Second level Master’s course in Pedagogy for the Person, Organisation and Society at Università Roma Tre. In all cases, the participants in the research provided for the translation of the questionnaire into their national languages, starting from the original English draft, prepared in the United States. The choice of publishing in two languages, Italian and English, was meant to be a sign of respect for the participants from the various Universities as well as an encouragement for everyone to read it. The data collected is more indicative, than statistically representative and able to be generalised, of what was felt by the teachers in contexts within which an identity of professional belonging was detected. We understand that the teacher is such within any context and that the phenomenal differentiations that characterise the various situations examined expand the viewpoint of the study without eliminating the mutual identifying features of the profession.In any case, teachers are recognised as just this. At times they feel it is a mission, at others a vocation. They start enthusiastically when they are young, become not motivated towards the middle of their careers and are completely exhausted upon reaching retirement.This appears to be an inflexible trend of the professional cycle and all countries detect second thoughts and exceptions. However, not all younger teachers are enthusiastic and not all teachers of retirement age stop teaching. The element that persists in all working and living situations is the proof of being an agent of social change and, in this being for innovation, one discovers the ethics of a profession that find a vital environment of an own, irreplaceable identification in schools and universities. The strong, common note is undoubtedly responsibility towards alumni balanced out by the weak, common note of regret of the scant social prestige of being a teacher. There seems to be a lack of communication between the personal and social aspects that the education towards being cannot manage to reconcile with educating towards having. We are responsible, but have no prestige. This image of teachers weighs heavily on their professional status due to the inevitable political implications it results in and the considerable effect on institutional behaviour. Teachers listen, but they are not heard; teachers are committed, but remain unrecognised; teachers assess, but are exploited. During the eleventh annual conference of the CiCe, which took place in Sweden in May 2009, part of our research group visited a State primary school in the suburbs of Malmö. When we chanced upon a teacher in the garden and asked her if she was happy to be at that school, she replied, “I’m proud of my school!” When we were able to talk to the schoolmaster, the head assistant and the staff and after seeing the children and how they behaved during the midday meal, we realised that there was something really great and profound in that school: a spirit of belonging and sense of community, a commitment to build up the joy of mutual existence together. In short: happiness, health, love, organisation, intercultural sensibility. The same values and philosophy that many teachers say they are pursuing and creating in the schools in which they work.Scientific investment is continuing, hereby availing itself of national approval of the project entitled Domanda e offerta di competenza nella professione docente: insegnanti tra realtà, rappresentazione e aspettative istituzionali nella Regione Lazio, (Supply and demand for skills in the teaching: teachers midst situations, representation and institutional expectations in the Region of Lazio) in Prin 2007. After the first meeting, held in September 2008, other encounters followed and, in May 2009, after distributing two new questionnaires to teachers and students in Italian secondary schools, a proposal was made for setting up a new study and research group, composed of colleagues from the CiCe, in order to execute the European extension of the project.
Chistolini, S. (2009). Teachers. Identity and ethics of the profession in Italy, United States of America, Poland, Belgium, Cyprus, Libya, Slovakia, Turkey. Roma : Kappa.
Teachers. Identity and ethics of the profession in Italy, United States of America, Poland, Belgium, Cyprus, Libya, Slovakia, Turkey
CHISTOLINI, Sandra
2009-01-01
Abstract
The book is the result of studies and research on the professional status of teachers from an international, comparative point of view. The first Italian workgroup, which met to discuss this subject in the summer of 2001, was progressively joined by groups of scholars from other countries, who were interested in giving a sense to teachers and value to their profession. The year 2004 saw the publication of data from the Italian and United States sides and, in 2005, the results from Poland were made known. Thoughts from Belgium, Cyprus and Libya were added in 2006 and joined by those of Slovakia and Turkey in 2007. For Poland, Belgium, Slovakia and Turkey, the academic meeting was supported by the annual conference of the European network, known as Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe Thematic Network, centrally coordinated by the Institute for Policy Studies in Education of London Metropolitan University, headed by Alistair Ross.The purveyance of the questionnaire for Cyprus and Libya was done by graduates following the Second level Master’s course in Pedagogy for the Person, Organisation and Society at Università Roma Tre. In all cases, the participants in the research provided for the translation of the questionnaire into their national languages, starting from the original English draft, prepared in the United States. The choice of publishing in two languages, Italian and English, was meant to be a sign of respect for the participants from the various Universities as well as an encouragement for everyone to read it. The data collected is more indicative, than statistically representative and able to be generalised, of what was felt by the teachers in contexts within which an identity of professional belonging was detected. We understand that the teacher is such within any context and that the phenomenal differentiations that characterise the various situations examined expand the viewpoint of the study without eliminating the mutual identifying features of the profession.In any case, teachers are recognised as just this. At times they feel it is a mission, at others a vocation. They start enthusiastically when they are young, become not motivated towards the middle of their careers and are completely exhausted upon reaching retirement.This appears to be an inflexible trend of the professional cycle and all countries detect second thoughts and exceptions. However, not all younger teachers are enthusiastic and not all teachers of retirement age stop teaching. The element that persists in all working and living situations is the proof of being an agent of social change and, in this being for innovation, one discovers the ethics of a profession that find a vital environment of an own, irreplaceable identification in schools and universities. The strong, common note is undoubtedly responsibility towards alumni balanced out by the weak, common note of regret of the scant social prestige of being a teacher. There seems to be a lack of communication between the personal and social aspects that the education towards being cannot manage to reconcile with educating towards having. We are responsible, but have no prestige. This image of teachers weighs heavily on their professional status due to the inevitable political implications it results in and the considerable effect on institutional behaviour. Teachers listen, but they are not heard; teachers are committed, but remain unrecognised; teachers assess, but are exploited. During the eleventh annual conference of the CiCe, which took place in Sweden in May 2009, part of our research group visited a State primary school in the suburbs of Malmö. When we chanced upon a teacher in the garden and asked her if she was happy to be at that school, she replied, “I’m proud of my school!” When we were able to talk to the schoolmaster, the head assistant and the staff and after seeing the children and how they behaved during the midday meal, we realised that there was something really great and profound in that school: a spirit of belonging and sense of community, a commitment to build up the joy of mutual existence together. In short: happiness, health, love, organisation, intercultural sensibility. The same values and philosophy that many teachers say they are pursuing and creating in the schools in which they work.Scientific investment is continuing, hereby availing itself of national approval of the project entitled Domanda e offerta di competenza nella professione docente: insegnanti tra realtà, rappresentazione e aspettative istituzionali nella Regione Lazio, (Supply and demand for skills in the teaching: teachers midst situations, representation and institutional expectations in the Region of Lazio) in Prin 2007. After the first meeting, held in September 2008, other encounters followed and, in May 2009, after distributing two new questionnaires to teachers and students in Italian secondary schools, a proposal was made for setting up a new study and research group, composed of colleagues from the CiCe, in order to execute the European extension of the project.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.