Examination of classroom teachers' attitudes towards the teaching profession and their opinions about the profession

The main purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of classroom teachers working in public schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education towards the teaching profession and their views on the profession. The research was conducted on a total of 295 classroom teachers in Aksaray and Kırşehiril centers in the 2020-2021 academic year. Mixed research method used in the study, "Personal Information Form", Unisen and Demirel (2018) developed by teachers "attitudes towards teaching profession Scale"to determine the views of the profession of veogretmen, which was prepared by the researchers "full-structured interview form" is used. The scale used for the collection of quantitative data consists of four sub-dimensions: value-giving, professional burnout, disinterestedness and openness to professional development. The scale has the form of a likert-type five-point rating consisting of a total of 28 items, 12 of which are negative and 16 of which are positive. Cronbachalpha coefficient of the scale .he is 94. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of the study is also .he is 94. In the study, the relationships between various variables such as gender, marital status, professional seniority, length of service at the school where dec works, class level studied and monthly income status and attitudes towards the teaching profession were examined. The data obtained were entered into the package data program and statistical operations were performed on it.Within the scope of the research, it was determined that teachers have a high level of professional attitude. A significant level of difference was found between the attitude towards the teaching profession and the variables of gender and professional decency. A significant difference in the gender variable is in favor of female teachers, while a significant difference in the professional seniority variable is in favor of teachers with professional seniority of 21 years and older.It has been concluded that there is no significant difference between the attitude towards the teaching profession and the marital status, the length of service at the school where dec works, the class level studied, and the income status variables. In the qualitative part of the study, 9 open-ended questions were posed in a fully structured interview form created by researchers and in accordance with expert opinions in order to refer to the detailed opinions of teachers. Descriptive content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the obtained data.Within the scope of the research, the satisfaction level of teachers is at an intermediate level. It turned out that the opinions of teachers about the dignity of the teaching profession in society are negative. In addition, it was found that a large part of the participants found the teacher education in Turkey insufficient. Although teachers' attitudes towards the teaching profession were high, their satisfaction levels with the teaching profession were moderate. In the light of these results, it has been proposed to make improvements in income, personal and social rights of teachers in order to increase their satisfaction levels.