Social characteristics and professional life perspectives of primary school teachers in Slovenia

In the theoretical part of the present doctoral dissertation we explored social characteristics and professional life perspectives of elementary school teachers. In the first part of the dissertation, we perform a literature survey. We wonder how one becomes a primary school professor, how one copes with this role and how does this role influences one’s life. To cover all those aspects, we tried to cover the full scope of the teaching profession from professional education in the process of socialization, decision-making and choice of profession, professional identity, feminization of the profession, working conditions, evaluation and perception of the profession to the satisfaction of working life and quality of life. In the empirical part of this dissertation, we present answers to the research hypotheses: we executed four different surveys, namely for students of elementary class teaching, primary school professors, male representatives of the engineering professions and female and male representatives of other non-teaching occupations. It has been established that the choice of the teaching profession is influenced by many different and interconnected factors and that the feminization of the profession is not distracting to anyone, although the professors want their representatives in the leadership. Class teaching professors are not perceived as academically educated intellectuals by the other non-pedagogical occupations, but their profession is respected more than the professors themselves think. Female students and professors experience their occupation as lacking perspective also when compared with the engineers. Even though professors are not satisfied with the working conditions, payment and the possibility of work promotion, they are not looking for another job. They are also overworked, so they are not looking for a second job. Despite their dissatisfaction with work, working life and limited career prospects, elementary school teachers are satisfied with their career choices and they do not think about changing the profession. This is mainly because competition in the labour market is high, job prospects for women are low and educational profile of the professors is too narrow. The research determined that factors that influence satisfaction with professors working life are not enough to make a meaningful contribution to the high quality of their working life. So, choosing the teaching profession for women is not the safest and most promising, and their way of life not full of happiness and quality. Overview of social characteristics and perspectives of working life of elementary school teachers has not been yet the subject of research and especially not so systematic, complex and separated from the other pedagogical profiles. The research results contribute to a change in the understanding of women as elementary school professors and their professional life