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Abstract
In Austria, as in many other countries, the educational system is confronted with challenges. Many of these challenges directly or indirectly affect the teaching profession. The first two sections in this paper describe a few system elements with special emphasis on the situation of the teaching profession. The second section describes new demand structures and how they affect the teaching profession. Sections 3 and 4 are two examples of major interventions in the system and their implications for the profession.
Notes
* Sterneckstrasse 15, A‐9020 Klagenfurt, Austria. Email: peter.posch@uni‐klu.ac.at
In this study (‘Lehrer 2000’) a representative sample of teachers was asked to keep a detailed register of their working time and activities for two weeks and fill out a questionnaire on job satisfaction and factors influencing it. A smaller sample of teachers received a medical check. The study was commissioned by two Ministries and by the Union of Public Employees.
This does not quite coincide with their status in the population: in a yearly national monitoring on education teachers had to be graded on a five point scale between ‘held in very great esteem’ (1) and ‘held in no esteem’ (5). The average grade was 2,6 in 2003 with only slight variations around the value of 2,5 during the last ten years. Around 50% of the population believe that teachers are held in very great and great esteem (Institut für Empirische Sozialforschung, Citation2003, p. 14). Considerably better than the teacher esteem is the estimation of the quality of the educational system (between very good and very bad). It is 1,9 on a five point scale and has even improved during the last years.
Frequently used models for quality evaluation were ISO 9000 (available online at www.thecoresolution.com/services/iso‐9000‐education/iso‐9000‐education‐01.phpd) and Total Quality Management (TQM) models such as the model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM; available online at http://home.t‐online.de/home/kfmaas/q_model.html).