Teachers opinions about their professional image and the factors affecting the professional image

The aim of this research is to state teachers' opinions about their Professional Images as well as the factors affecting Professional Image. In this context, the researcher tried to determine the teachers' opinions about the professional image, the factors affecting the professional image, status and prestige of the profession, teachers' quality and personal image. In the research method, the "Mixed Method" is used. For the quantitative part, Professional Image Scale is used and the scale is consisted of three parts as Communication, Social and Personal Image. For the qualitative part, a semi-structured interview form is used. In the quantitative part; sample of the research constitute of 802 teachers work in the provinces of Gaziantep, Adıyaman and Kahramanmaraş in the 2014-2015 academic year. In the qualitative part, in order to allow for different views, maximum diversity sampling is used and the semi-structured interview is applied to 25 attendants. According to the research results, teachers replies for the social dimension of the Professional Image Scale are found to be at the level of "I disagree". Teachers' replies for the factors affecting Professional image under the political actor theme of the scale are as: governments' not appreciating the teachers and leaving them alone and unclaimed. Teachers' replies under the Ministry of National Education are as follow: Roles and meaning which the Ministry of National Education load on teachers, the inconsistency on the educational policies, teachers' views and thoughts are not being evaluated, teachers are forced to have a passive condition as a result of the understanding that the students and the parents are always right. In the interviews, participants do not find the teacher quality adequate and they evaluate the teachers' professional status and prestige to be at a low level. Teachers also replied the communication dimension at the level of "I partly agree". Regarding the demographic variables as gender, type of school, seniority and educational background no meaningful difference is found within the teachers' opinions.