Slovene and Serbian perschool teacherʾs conceptualizations of career and professional development

Rapid scientific development and numerous changes in the society of knowledge change the position and role of teachers of pre-school children. Their professional role is becoming increasingly complex, therefore, continuous professional learning and development are becoming a basic imperative of individual´s professional operation. Various external and internal factors influence the extent and the way of teacher´s development. An important role is also played by their conception of career and professional development, therefore, in the master´s thesis I want to dedicate the central focus to these concepts. Career of individual employee includes activities and tasks that the individual performs or performed in the past, workplaces, forms and types of carried out educations and trainings, achieved working results and successes, promotions and regressions, implemented projects, and similar. Professional development of teachers is a lifelong process, which is importantly connected to the reflection of their own work. The purpose of the graduation thesis is to establish which factors influence the teachers´ decision for occupation and how teachers define their own career and professional development. We were interested in whether Slovenian and Serbian teachers of pre-school children differ in occupational decision, conception of career and professional development, professional satisfaction, in how they assess the system of promotion of employees into professional titles, and the level of their readiness for further education and training. We have established that Slovenian and Serbian teachers of pre-school children have similar reasons for choice of the teaching occupation, and rather similar conceptions of their own career. Teachers are satisfied with their work and assess their career as successful. They are aware of the need for constant learning and that the professional development lasts to the end of the teacher´s career. The results of the survey revealed that Slovenian teachers are satisfied with the system of promotion into professional titles, while Serbian teachers want changes in this area. Further, Slovenian teachers are also more satisfied with the system of further education and training