Challenges of the Teaching Profession: Student Teacher Wiev of the Status of Teachers in the Society and Their Own Engagement with Their Future Profession

Some people view teaching as a mission, many others consider it as just another job. Teaching profession is publicly perceived as socially valuable and important, a job essential for the development of fundamental societal and human values. However, in 2019 Croatia, one still cannot speak of teaching as a profession. The public perceives teacher's expected high level of enthusiasm as a basic quality of an educator, rather than expecting a high degree of professionalism. Consequently, unlike education policies in some European countries, the historical development of the upgrade to the teaching profession in Croatia is somewhat lagging behind.

The text analyses the status of teachers and the acceptance of the educational profession in Croatia as well as the working conditions in the Croatian education. We present research results of attitudes towards the teaching profession and the social status of teachers expressed by students enrolled in the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Rijeka. The main objective of the research was to determine the attitudes of students on the current status of teachers in Croatia, concurrently examining the level of their readiness to actively engage in achieving better social and material status of teachers. The research was conducted in 2018 using the survey method. The results confirmed that the respondents possess developed awareness of the deficiencies in the Croatian school system and the underpaid teaching staff. Aware of the basic weaknesses in the education policy, respondents expressed their willingness to engage in solving these problems. The results also clearly pointed to the need for an essential educational reform to improve the status of the teaching staff.