Attitudes to the teaching profession expressed by motives of Czech and Polish students for choosing to study teaching

The choice of field of study is influenced by many factors. This text focuses on the factors that influence students to choose teaching as a field of study, and students’ attitudes towards the teaching profession expressed by their motives for choosing this field. Based on selected factors (prestige of the profession, social importance of the profession, interest in working with children, etc.), the motives that played a role in choosing the field of study are identified among the interviewed students. The author did not focus solely on the Czech territory, but also carried out a research/survey of Polish students in the same field. The main goal of the research was to analyse the attitudes of Czech and Polish students toward the teaching profession. The work follows the research investigation of prof. PhDr. Marta Klímová DrSc. from 1973, who carried out her investigation among students of the teaching programmes. Parts of Klímová’s questionnaire were also used in the survey, but these parts were updated due to changed conditions in education as well as some political changes. The research group consisted of Czech students at Masaryk University of the third-year bachelor’s studies Kindergarten Teacher Training and the third and fifth years of the study programme Primary School Teacher Training; and Polish students at the University of Silesia of the third-year bachelor’s degree and second-year master’s degree Early School Education and Pre-School Education