Perceptions regarding English language teaching profession: A comparative study of teachers, prospective teachers, and parents

Without doubt, English teachers play an ineluctable role in the learning processes of students. Therefore, how teachers perceive themselves and how they are perceived by parents professionally bear great significance for the efficiency of education systems because these perceptions may enable or hinder language teaching. How the society perceive English teachers closely affect teachers in terms of shaping their motivations, their devotion to the profession, how they perform in the classroom, and student achievements. In this respect, there are various national or international studies on perceptions; yet to the researcher's knowledge there is no comprehensive and comparative study of perceptions of the three groups. Considering all, the current study aims to present a comparative analysis with 123 in-service English teachers, 71 pre-service English teachers, and 129 parents. Accordingly, in order to investigate the perceptions of participants on relevant issues, 1 scale and 2 questionnaires with open-ended questions were developed by the researcher. The scale and the questionnaires are prepared as Likert-type instruments. As a part of mixed-methods research model, the qualitative and quantitative data were collected online first via convenience sampling and then via snowball sampling. Based on voluntary participation, the data were collected from July to October, 2018 and were analyzed via SPSS and content analysis. In the light of the results, in-service and pre-service teachers hold positive perceptions about their professional status despite the fact that working conditions make the majority unhappy. Almost half of the participants chose to be a teacher owing to social utility values with contentment of their career choice. However, teachers seem to suffer from a status deficit due to undervaluing of their profession by society.