Teacher's attitudes toward their job and professional development in Turkey : an EFL perspective

Abstract

Various studies investigating the factors that affect professional development have found that both extrinsic factors such as pay and promotion and intrinsic rewards such as pride in work can supply motivation for professional development. This study aims to investigate the attitudes of Turkish EFL teachers toward their teaching career and professional development. In doing so, it also explores what cultural and/or political factors may affect Turkish EFL teachers' professional development. Data came from semi-structured interviews administered to 31 teachers working in 5 different English medium high schools in Istanbul. The findings indicate that these Turkish EFL teachers have positive feelings toward their careers and professional development to the extent that their personal values, abilities, and accomplishments match their expectations of the values, abilities, and accomplishments that should characterize a teacher. Moreover, the results also indicate that teachers' professional accomplishments, together with the recognition they receive from administrators and supervisors have a strong positive relationship to their attitudes toward professional development. Finally, similar to the findings of studies conducted in various cultural contexts, this research suggests that, extrinsic and intrinsic factors must receive complex interpretation in relation to work satisfaction of teachers and their attitudes toward professional development. Professional development has attracted increasing attention in recent years. It has been recognised that institutional conditions - such as the need for improving quality - and individual needs of teachers - such as job satisfaction and personal/professional growth - are the two inextricable dimensions of professional development.