EFFECT OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION ON TEACHING PROFESSION IN GWAGWALADA AREA COUNCIL

1.1 Introduction

Teaching profession refers to the occupation, practice, or vocation requiring mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills through formal education and/or practical experience. Every organized profession is governed by its respective professional body. Education at primary school level is supposed to be the bedrock and the foundation towards higher knowledge in tertiary institutions. It is an investment as well as an instrument that can be used to achieve a more rapid economic, social, political, technological, scientific and cultural development in the country. Aremu (2000) stresses that academic failure is not only frustrating to the pupils and the parents, its effects are equally grave on the society in terms of dearth of manpower in all spheres of the economy and politics (Aremu, 2000).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Teaching profession is not a new area of research and different approaches have been used in order to explain it. Teaching profession is based on vocational and personal skills and competencies, involves professional and ethical standards and models, and entails a continuous process of professional development. In different countries, the recent implemented changes and reforms in educational field require teachers to demonstrate ongoing competences in their roles and adapt to new job requirements. Teachers are often pressed to do more work with fewer resources and are required to obtain high outcomes in their professional activities. Extensive quantitative and qualitative research was based on investigation of teachers’ beliefs and perceptions of their professional activity, job satisfaction, and motivation.

Teachers make decisions in teaching activity based on their experiences, perceptions, values and beliefs about their roles, activities, and responsibilities in schools. Research has indicated that positive teachers’ attitudes and perceptions are fundamental for effective teaching, and teachers’ beliefs, perceptions and attitudes affect their practice and influence the students’ performance (Eggen & Kauchak, 2014). High teachers’ attitudes towards teaching profession have effects on their classroom performance and teaching practice, and are correlated with the burnout level (Ispir, 2010). In order to understand teachers’ attitudes, job satisfaction was used to assess teachers’ attitude towards work (Ahmad & Sahak, 2009).

Teachers’ job satisfaction has been recognized as extremely important for implementing any type of education reform, for involving the teacher in life-long learning and for the quality of the teaching-learning process. As a process by which people attach meaning to experience (Eggen &Kauchak, 2014), the perception of teaching profession helps teachers’ to gain meanings and to understand the different aspects, experiences, roles, responsibilities and practices from their professional activity. Beginning teachers start their careers with more positive views of their work and work environment that most other professions. However, after only 8 months of service, when they confronted with the reality of teaching, their positive work perceptions significant declined associated with increasing levels of burnout.

Teachers reported that they were required to exert more effort than their more experienced colleagues and this effort required to undertake teaching was greater than the rewards that resulted from being a teacher. This fact suggests a declining overall perception of teaching career during the first 8 months of professional practice (Goddard & O'Brien, 2012; Meerah et al., 2010). The teacher psychological experiences and their perceptions of their workplace can be sources of stress that have the potential to undermine teacher effectiveness (Ransford et al., 2009). Yates (2011) investigated the primary school teachers’ perceptions of professional learning activities starting from the principles of the effective teacher professional development.

Therefore, in Gwagwalada Area Council where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effect of Public Perception on Teaching Profession.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that teachers in the olden days were next to kings but now his counterpart in modern times is easily recognize when cornered. To all professionals, the way they perceive themselves and the value of their services tend to influence their efficiency and hence productivity. For teachers, such perception is influenced by the views of the public about teaching. A teacher tends to be psychologically handicapped by public perception of the value of his/her service. Teachers tend to be humbled by the psychological pressure put on them by the feeling that, despite their irreplaceable service, their career is not regarded as a profession by the public.

According to Nenty (2010), pressure emanating from negative views from the public of teaching as a career by the society tends to reduce the amount of affective and cognitive investments on teaching and learning by teachers and teacher trainees. Such views tend to kill the aspiration and inspirational stamina of teachers.

A situational analysis of Nigeria education system has noted that there is a challenge of poor quality teachers, as practicing teachers do not get equitable treatment when it comes to teacher training and professional development (Kgalemang, 2015). The situation needs urgent attention.

The report indicates that the issue is compounded by inadequate provision of teacher training related to the new curriculum resulting in teachers often not being in a good position to implement the curriculum properly. This is an immense challenge which reflects that teaching profession in Nigeria within the context of the teacher developments. As an attempt to address the challenge, it is important to investigate into teaching as a profession as perceived by primary school teachers.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Effect of Public Perception on Teaching Profession in Gwagwalada Area Council. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the extent primary school teachers perceived teaching as a profession;
2. To examine the extent how primary school teacher perception of teaching as a profession influences their attitude towards teaching;
3. To examine the effect of teacher’s perception of their profession, job satisfaction and mentality towards work;
4. To examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their profession, job satisfaction and mentality towards work;
5. To examine the ways of enhancing teachers professionalism in primary schools; and
6. To examine the factors that influence the development of the perceptions of teaching profession and the attitudes towards work in primary school teachers.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are there factors that influence the development of the perceptions of teaching profession and the attitudes towards work in primary school teachers?
• Is there any relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their profession, job satisfaction and mentality towards work?
• What is the extent primary school teacher’s perceived teaching as a profession?
• What are the ways of enhancing teacher’s professionalism in primary schools?
• What are the effect of teacher’s perception of their profession, job satisfaction and mentality towards work?
• What is the extent to how primary school teacher perception of teaching as a profession influences their attitude towards teaching?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant effect of teacher’s perception towards teaching profession on their level of job satisfaction in Gwagwalada Area Council
• H1: There is a significant relationship between teacher’s perception towards teaching and their level of job satisfaction in Gwagwalada Area Council

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1.7 Significance of Study

The result of the study will be of significance to the State Ministry of Education, State Universal Basic Education Board and Local Government Education Authorities across the state, primary school administrators, Parents-Teachers' Associations, teachers and pupils. First, to the government agencies (Ministry of Education, State Universal Basic Education Board and Local Government Education Authorities), the result of the study would help them to appreciate the need to adopt more serious measures and take concrete steps in providing the needed services, enabling environment and facilities towards meeting the laid down standards.

This could be through seminar and workshops organised to brainstorm on the findings and recommendations of the study. Through this, it would also make them to appreciate the need to provide more intensive and regular checks on primary schools to ensure that they conform to the stipulated standards.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Effect of Public Perception on Teaching Profession in Gwagwalada Area Council, FCT Abuja.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Perception: The ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

Teaching: Teaching is a form of interpersonal influence aimed at changing the behaviour potential of another person and it’s a social process.

Profession: Occupation, practice, or vocation requiring mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills through formal education and/or practical experience. Every organized profession (accounting, law, teaching, etc.) is governed by its respective professional body.