Public perceptions of teachers’ status in Flanders

Abstract

In recent years, the perception in Flanders has been that teachers enjoy little or no esteem from the average citizen. On the basis of a representative sample of 982 Flemings between the ages of 18 and 71 years old, this article investigates whether or not this feeling is really present and what factors contribute to it. The following questions are dealt with in turn: what esteem does the public have for teachers, and how highly does it place their occupational status? The results of this survey show that the teacher enjoys a positive image among most Flemings and can count on a high degree of esteem. The general public realizes that teaching is a demanding occupation that has changed drastically in recent decades. In comparison with the 1970s, there is no drop in status for teachers, although the profession suffers from status inconsistency. The observation that personal experiences have a clear influence on esteem for teaching places a certain degree of responsibility on the teachers themselves. Indeed, they have this esteem largely in their own hands, and can improve it. Satisfaction with education, the well‐being of the pupils, the assumption of the role of child‐raiser, and the involvement and interest of parents—these are all aspects that the teacher can realize by the way in which he or she deals with pupils and their parents. Armed with the results of this study, they can also contribute to destroying the myth that society has no esteem for teachers.

Keywords:

• Esteem
• Teachers
• Social stratification
• Social status
• Status inconsistency

Notes

1. Since Belgium became a federal state in 1989, the Flemish, the French‐speaking and the German‐speaking communities became responsible for policy towards culture and personal issues (education, culture, language, welfare and health).

2. The data of this article were compiled in the framework of a project worked out for the Department of Education of the Flemish Community (Belgium) (OBPWO 00.03).

3. What Hoyle (2001) places under the term ‘occupational prestige’ is for us ‘status’. Indeed, it is on the basis of prestige that status is generated.

4. The Flemish population between 18 and 71 years old was 3,928,319.

5. Flanders is divided into five provinces, and each province is divided into several administrative districts (22 districts spread over Flanders).

6. Occupational status of the respondents, one’s own school experience, satisfaction with the teachers of one’s own children, utilitarian individualism, one’s own professional involvement in school, voluntary involvement in school, professional involvement in school of significant others, and interest in education.

7. Hair et al. (1998, p. 118) set .70 as the norm for the alpha values but accept values up to .60 in exploratory research.

8. Eighty‐one per cent of the respondents stated that they esteem most to all teachers in vocational secondary education: for technical education the figure is 78%; for general secondary education 69%; and for artistic secondary education 60%.

9. This teacher has completed his studies in a college of higher education (earning a BA) and teaches in the lower years of secondary education.

10. A ‘licentiate’ has completed university or has had other higher academic education and teaches in the upper stages of secondary education. From 2005 onwards, the title of licentiate will be replaced by MA.