International survey in eight countries about teachers and teaching profession Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Libya, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, United States of America

An international team of experts from Belgium, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey and the USA employed a questionnaire to identify the deontology of teachers in eight countries, from infant to secondary school. The survey was implemented between 2004 and 2007. The socio-cultural concept of Verstehen, described in the works of Max Weber, was the clear significance of being a teacher at this time in history. Qualitative and quantitative analysis allowed for understanding that the teacher is exactly that, within any context. The ideal typology of the teacher is the result of training at university level and working in the school system. Phenomenal differentiations characterised the various situations and expanded the viewpoint of the study, including identification of the shared features of the profession. The strong, common core is the 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 involved in shaping the professional identity. The social 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 evaluate, but are evaluated in turn. The issue of the social importance of the profession of teachers in our societies emerges as a crucial point in the perspective of educating young generations.