Attitudes of pre-school and primary school teachers about professions

The aim of this study is to determine attitudes of pre-school and primary school teachers about professions. For this purpose, teachers' attitudes of teaching profession were examined according to the variables of gender, graduation status, professional seniority and academic level. The study group of thesis consisted of 42 primary schools and 602 teachers in independent pre-school in Malatya Battalgazi and Yeşilyurt. The research was carried out using a mixed model in both quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative dimension of the research, "Attitude Scale of Teaching Profession" was used developed by Nevruz Demirel and Ali Ünişen in 2015.This scale is that a Likert scale is a five-point scale consisting of 11 negative and 17 positive items. The scale was composed of four sub-dimensions: appreciation, occupational burnout, apathy and openness of vocational development. In the qualitative dimension of the research, semi-structured interview form, which was formed by the researcher with expert opinions, was used to the teachers' detailed views on the issue. The first part of the interview form consisted of the questions aspiring the personal information of the participants and the second part consisted of 5 open-ended questions aspiring revealing their attitudes towards the teaching profession. The data optained from the study were evaluated with quantitative data analysis package program. In this context, independent samples t-test, variance analysis, percentage, frequency and standard deviation tests were used. In addition, descriptive analysis method was used in the analysis of the qualitative datas. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the attitudes of pre-school and classroom teachers towards teaching profession were mostly positive. In addition, significant differences were found in the attitudes towards teaching profession according to gender variable, occupational burnout and apathy in men; openness of vocational development in women it has been found that it differs significantly. While there was a significant differencein the apathy sub-dimension according to the graduation status between the associate degree teachers and undergraduate teachers. Likewise, in the apathy sub-dimension according to the professional seniority variable, between '6-10 years' seniority and '16-20 years' seniority and '16-20 years' and '21 years and above' seniority, between '11-15 years' and '21 years and above' seniority significant differences were found and there was no difference in other dimensions. It was concluded that there was no significant difference in all dimensions according to the academic level . In the qualitative dimension of the research, it was revealed that the attitudes of pre-school and classroom teachers towards teaching profession were mostly positive. This situation revealed that quantitative and qualitative results support each other. In addition, pre-school and classroom teachers' feelings about their profession, the reasons for choosing the profession, their attitudes towards the profession and their opinions on the affecting factors this attitude were revealed. In addition to these results, teachers perceptions about the perspective of society and their attitudes towards their professions in process variances were obtained. In the light of these results, suggestions were made for teachers to develop positive attitudes towards their professions. Also, suggestions were made to identify and eliminate the factors that cause teachers to develop negative attitudes towards their proffessions.