Lifelong Education of Teachers: The Gap between Reality and Awareness

By providing the acquisition of knowledge and skills matching the demands of the modern times, education has a major impact on the development of economy and society in general. However, in order to have such significance, education has to constantly and consistently improve its quality. Teachers have a key role in this process and accordingly have to look after their professional development. The basic aim of this paper was to research the attitudes of teachers in the Brčko District in Bosnia and Herzegovina about lifelong education, their willingness and involvement in different types of lifelong education, and the satisfaction with their profession. The field research was conducted by surveying 101 elementary school teachers in the Brčko District in 2009. In some ways, the results of this piece of research were consistent with the results of the research conducted in developed countries, and in other ways, they were not. The results are consistent when it comes to the levels of satisfaction with working in their profession. However, there are some differences when it comes to the question of evaluating the level of one’s knowledge and educational skills, as well as the knowledge and educational skills of fellow teachers, and also when it comes to the question of participating in different types of professional development. Unlike most of the teachers surveyed in developed countries, the majority of teachers in the Brčko District are very satisfied with their knowledge and skills, with how they are equipped with the literature for both personal and professional development, and they do not identify the way the schools are equipped with literature as a problem. Even though most of the teachers are aware of the importance of lifelong education in their own professional development and the development of society in general, they rarely take part in different types of organized professional advancement opportunities and many of them do not even consider it necessary. This situation generates a number of implications and suggestions which are discussed in this paper, and which are directed towards teachers, school principals, and creators of the educational policies in general