Status of Educators Still Reeling From Austerity, Political Attacks
Finland, Singapore, and South Korea are well known for holding the teaching profession in high regard, and their students are the beneficiaries. How many other nations can say the same?
Unfortunately, a roll call of nations where educators believe they are held in very high esteem won’t take long. For every Finland, there are dozens of countries, including the United States, where public education has been degraded and educators have been demoralized – a combination of crippling austerity measures and hostile political climates that have introduced policies to de-professionalize the profession.
Education International (EI), the global union representing teachers and education workers worldwide, details the impact on educators in the 2015 Status of Teachers and the Teaching Profession report.
The study grew out of a six-month long survey of 73 education unions to measure how educators – in the wake of the global recession and ongoing political attacks – view their profession. Unfortunately, whether it’s about declining salaries, negative media portrayals, or deteriorating working conditions, the story is generally the same across continents.
“This status of teachers report is one more sign, one more piece of evidence that reveals the threats to the status of teachers from misguided ‘reforms,’ explains EI General Secretary Fred Van Leeuwen. “Given the intimate relationship between teaching conditions and learning conditions; those same threats endanger quality education.”
More than half the respondents reported a decline in teacher status, or occupational prestige or esteem, over the past ten years. Less than a third of unions in each sector besides higher education said teachers are accorded a high status and only five percent said teacher status was “very high.” Low status was reported more for Status of Educators Still Reeling From Austerity, Political Attacks - NEA Today:
