Professional Teacher's Portrait Of The Krasnoyarsk Region

Abstract

In this article, we present a professional portrait of teachers of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It was developed based on the results of a comprehensive study of professional deficits of teachers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in 2020. The conceptual basis of the research is the idea that in addition to the objective conditions that determine the success and development of teachers, an important factor is the subjective views of teachers themselves about themselves, their competencies, and difficulties. Their role in the development of the education system and professional activity in general is also important. The study focused on the professional position, professional communication, and professionally significant personal competencies of the teacher. The construction of a multi-stage sample and the socio-demographic characteristics of 3,300 respondents allow us to confirm the representativeness of the data obtained. The results obtained allowed us to draw up a professional portrait of the teacher and highlight the problems of the development of the profession in the region.

Keywords: Teacher, professional portrait, professional position, personal professional competencies

Introduction

The Russian Federation has set ambitious goals for the coming years: enter the top ten countries in the world in terms of the quality of education to ensure the competitiveness of the national economy. Not for the first time in the last hundred years, the education system should be able to solve the strategic tasks of the development of the economy and society in the future. The central figure in the system of general education again becomes a teacher (teacher) who has creative and innovative thinking, owns modern educational and information technologies, has a high social status, etc. The answers to these challenges depend on the pedagogical community itself, on science and higher education, and on society, represented by parents, public organizations, and other stakeholders.

The Krasnoyarsk Territory among the subjects of the Russian Federation can claim no less positions in this regard. The region is one of the largest regions of the country, the territory of which extends from the Arctic Ocean to the border with Mongolia Republic of Tyva, rich in mineral and water resources, highly urbanized subject with an educated population. But, if from the point of view of economic development, the Krasnoyarsk Territory belongs to the main, most developed Russian regions, then in terms of the development of the social sphere, if not lagging, then significantly losing even to the nearest neighbor of the Siberian Federal District – the Novosibirsk Region.

In our study of professional deficits and difficulties of teachers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory (Novopashina et al., 2020), we proceed from the task of not only overcoming them in the process of designing and changing the system of training and continuous development, but also providing conditions for the formation of a highly professional and competitive teacher corps in the country. The conceptual basis of our research is the idea that in addition to the objective conditions that determine the success and development of teachers, an important factor is the subjective views of teachers themselves about themselves, their competencies and difficulties, their role in the development of the education system and professional activity in general.

In this article, we present a professional portrait based on the results of a comprehensive study of professional deficits of teachers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in 2020. The research tool was based on the focus on the professional position, professional communication, and professionally significant personal competencies of the teacher.

Problem Statement

Professional standards and normative documents, on the one hand, allow us to work with the norm of professional knowledge and competencies of teachers, on the other hand, do not allow us to assess their deficits and difficulties and identify the future. Meanwhile, the need to identify difficulties and deficits is high, and there are practically no methods and tools for this. In addition, a single position on the set of professional characteristics, as well as on its components, has not yet developed in Russian science and practice.

Research Questions

The solution to this problem is possible through the definition of professional deficits and difficulties of teachers of the Krasnoyarsk region, in which it is necessary to compare the actual professional characteristics with the set that they should have. In other words, it is necessary to answer the question about the professional portrait of the teacher.

Questions about the model of the "professional portrait of a teacher" and how the developed model allows us to describe the professional characteristics of teachers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory are central to this study.

Purpose of the Study

To develop a model for studying the professional portrait of teachers. To develop a model for studying the professional portrait of teachers. Based on domestic and foreign experience, as well as data from a sociological survey, to determine the professional portrait of teachers of the Krasnoyarsk region.

Research Methods

In our research, we initially adhere to the definition of the "professional portrait" of Sheglov and Nikitina (2004) – this is "a set of professional characteristics that a specialist should possess in the field of his professional activity to most accurately correspond to the specialty and successfully perform professional duties" (p. 48). The authors indicate the possibility of using the "professional portrait" in the system of professional or higher education and in the personnel management system as a tool that can be used when describing employees in the organization or requirements for candidates for a particular job, as a reference point for finding suitable candidates for a specific vacancy or for indicating the directions of changing the profession (position), it can serve as an information base for making managerial decisions on personnel training and development (Sheglov & Nikitina, 2004). Shumilova and Chernyshenko (2020) actualizes the formation of a professional portrait of a teacher as the basis for branding an educational organization.

Depending on the goals of creating a professional portrait and the level of its specialization, the model, the methodology of its formation, methods, and tools for quantitative measurement (determination) of quality standards and the level of possession of certain professional characteristics are specified. To compile a professional portrait of a teacher in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, we attempted to analyze domestic and foreign experience in determining the professional and personal characteristics of educational workers. It is possible that professional portraits of representatives of other professions are well described in the scientific and practical literature, but when we start our research, we are faced with the situation that there is no unified position on the very concept of "professional portrait of a teacher", as well as on its components in Russian science and practice.

The basis for determining the list of normative characteristics of a professional portrait, the standards of their quality and level of possession should serve, of course, normative legal acts in the field of education, but they do not give a clear idea. For example, Antonova (2020), in her review of legislative acts, receives the following portrait of a "Teacher of the 21st century": highly qualified, competent, socially active, creative, and mobile, keeping up with the times (p. 193). The Russian teacher must be able to carry out pedagogical, project, methodological, organizational, and managerial, cultural, and educational activities, support different categories of students in the learning process, be able to interact with parents, colleagues, know the legal documents in the field of education, carry out self-education, self-development, professional growth.

A slightly different portrait of a modern teacher was obtained by Fedorov (2019) – a teacher must have a sufficient level of subject knowledge and competencies, create a comfortable and safe educational environment; be able to communicate with all participants in educational relations; maintain a productive emotional state, positive motivation, reflect and determine the directions of their professional development; be socially active, initiate socially-oriented educational projects; actively participate in state educational projects and programs (p. 125). As the personal qualities of a teacher, we can call the designation of the need to form an "author's style of a teacher" in accordance with the values of society (Fedorov, 2019, p. 124).

Mingaleva (2019) presents the grouping of competencies of a modern teacher in her work. The author identified" metacompetencies "(communication, self-development, creativity, analyticity, problem solving)," cognitive "(the ability to discover, theoretical knowledge, skills, orientational representations)," functional "(official, procedural, mental, psychomotor)," personal "(social and professional)," ethical" (individual and professional) (p. 10-11). At the same time, a separate "portrait" can be drawn up for each of the groups of teacher competencies, for example, in the works of Rezapkina (2011), a method of self-diagnosis and development of important qualities through a "psychological portrait of a teacher" is presented.

Professional portrait in addition to professional knowledge, skills, and competencies, personal or personal-psychological qualities are also assumed. Shumilova and Chernyshenko (2020) in the model of a highly professional portrait of a teacher of an inclusive educational organization include "professional-value orientations, professionally significant personal qualities and competencies" (p. 423). For successful pedagogical work with children with special educational needs, the teacher is expected to have a personal willingness to work with such children, continuous training and improvement of skills, translational experience, participation in creative projects, innovative research activities, professional skill competitions, and designing an individual educational route for each child.

For the purposes of our research, the foreign experience of drawing up a professional portrait of a teacher is interesting. Among the professional and personal requirements for teachers in Canada, presented in the work of Bodnar (2016), "his most important qualities are the ability to organize, plan and manage activities in the educational environment; the ability to establish constructive communication with students, parents, colleagues and the public; the manifestation of a tolerant attitude to all participants in the educational process; the ability of a teacher to work in a multicultural environment; awareness of the task assigned to the development of independent thinking of students and the need for continuous professional and personal development; active participation in the process of reforming education in general and professional teacher education in particular; belonging to the professional community of teachers in Canada" (Bodnar, 2016, p. 318). These requirements are implemented in conditions where " the teaching profession is prestigious and enjoys support in the form of investments in training, the policy is characterized by continuity, and the goals of education are formulated clearly and concretely (Bodnar, 2016).

The portrait of the rural teacher of China in the study of Kuznetsova and Mashkina (2018) can be considered as a certain contrast to the teacher of Canada, both literally and figuratively. The authors present a generalized portrait of a young rural teacher, using socio-demographic (type of locality, gender, age, nationality, social origin, marital status), socio-economic (housing conditions, salary and financial status, satisfaction with financial status, coverage of medical, pension, social insurance, property, life and health insurance), professional (education profile, education levels and qualifications and their growth as a result of professional development, the level of pedagogical load) and socio-psychological. Among the latter, the authors most likely refer to the motivation and moral and ethical values of teachers, for example, commitment to the teaching profession, willingness to work in rural areas and in weak and hard-to-reach schools, the desire to improve their skills, and satisfaction with their social status. On the part of the state administration of education of the People's Republic of China, the requirements for the socio-psychological characteristics of a teacher are also formulated quite clearly: the ability to "be a conductor of the state strategy for building a stable, harmonious society, not subject to the cataclysms of youth discontent with their social and material situation" (Kuznetsova & Mashkina, 2018, p. 103), to have "psychological stability, good education, expressiveness, thinking and high moral qualities" (p. 99).

The need to specify the characteristics and qualities of the teacher is actualized in the conditions of political and social upheavals and cardinal changes, in the conditions of rapid change of the system of cultural values, which is demonstrated in the article by Kobecz (2020). Among the professional qualities of a teacher of social disciplines of the Donetsk People's Republic, the author calls professional skill, methodological competence, free and thorough knowledge of subject material and innovative teaching technologies, constant self-education. Among the personal qualities – love for children, teaching work, patriotism, high personal culture, which is reflected in the appearance, emotionality of speech, goodwill, openness, sincere attention to each child.

The experience of Russian researchers in drawing up actual professional portraits of different categories of employees, including teachers, teachers, managers, and employees of educational organizations, is quite diverse.

On the one hand, the minimum set of professional characteristics is presented according to the results of the analysis of attestation materials and expertise of pedagogical activity in the article by Dolgoarshinnykh (2020), the author attributed to them pedagogical experience, professional education, passing advanced training courses, recognition of the level of pedagogical activity in the form of awards, diplomas, commendations of various levels, student performance. On the other hand, in several works, the professional portrait of a teacher is represented rather by personal characteristics. For example, Kobleva, and Morozova's (2017) professional portrait is defined by the dynamics of professional and pedagogical growth, depending on the level of labor motivation, the system of value orientations and personal professional attitudes. Self-monitoring, self-assessment, values, goal setting, responsibility, level of subjective control, empathy and readiness for self-development are the characteristics of a professional portrait and determine the image of a modern teacher.

As a rule, the authors present not only professional and personal-psychological, but also other characteristics. For example, the age-sex structure of education workers is shown in the publications of Dyachuk and Bocharova (2020), Baryshev (2020), Trusova (2019). Efimova and Kainov (2017) present a social rather than a socio-professional portrait of teachers of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug as a professional group.

The experience of the staff of the Department of Pedagogy and Andragogy of the St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education (St. Petersburg APPO) in conducting a comprehensive study of the professional and personal characteristics of St. Petersburg teachers is interesting (Efimova & Kainov, 2017). The compiled typological portraits include not only formal (level and profile of education, qualifications, teaching experience, weekly workload), socio-demographic (gender, age), socio-economic (level and sources of income, housing conditions), socio-psychological (psychological state, degree of professional adaptation, career strategy), but also "socio-cultural features, leading problems and difficulties of professional activity, understanding of the professional mission, readiness to learn and improve in the profession" (Sheveleva, 2020, p. 189).

The course of drawing up a portrait through self-assessment of the effectiveness of his professional activity, the existing organizational and methodological, didactic, and communicative difficulties, the presence of neuropsychological stress and negative emotional states, presented in the monograph (Sheveleva, 2020), is of great interest for the purposes of our research. Through the definition of professional difficulties, the portrait of a young teacher is also shown in the article by Litovchenko (2017).

As a result of the generalization of the approaches used and the results of drawing up a professional portrait by foreign and Russian scientists, the following model was adopted for the purposes of this study: the professional portrait of a teacher is represented by four blocks – professional position, subject, communicative and personal characteristics. At the same time, we do not touch on the subject qualities and the level of their proficiency, for this purpose, the general education system has systems for evaluating, certifying, etc. teachers, but an attempt has been made to evaluate the other three blocks with the tools of a sociological survey.

As part of the" Comprehensive study of professional deficits of teachers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory " in 2020, we developed a sample and a questionnaire. To calculate the sample, we used official statistics on the number and composition of teachers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. To build the selection, a step-by-step selection of objects was used. Thus, in the multi-stage sample, the selection units were municipalities, educational organizations (schools), subjects and stages.

As a sample, a total of 2.408 respondents were identified. In fact, more were interviewed, and the processing database included 3.300 questionnaires of teachers of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The survey is conducted in offline and online formats.

The questionnaire questions are aimed at clarifying the professionally significant qualities of teachers, their pedagogical position and value orientations in their professional activities. The questionnaire includes 38 direct, indirect, as well as closed and semi-closed questions. The analysis of the data obtained during the survey was carried out using statistical processing methods.

Among our respondents, women predominate (89.5 %), living in the cities of the region (54.5%), working in general education schools (83.4%) at the basic level (47.7%), having higher pedagogical education (77.4%) and the first qualification category (42.0%). The sample includes all age groups - from under 25-year-olds to over 65-year-olds, most of them are married (68.7 %), have two or more children (51.4%).

These and other socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents confirm the representativeness of the data obtained.

In our empirical study, the emphasis was placed on the position and personal qualities of a modern teacher through the eyes of the teachers of the Krasnoyarsk Territory themselves.

Respondents chose the teaching profession because they "like working with children" (51.2 %), consider it "significant for the development of society as a whole" (39.5%) and their "vocation" (35.6%), "it corresponds to their individual abilities" (33.4%).

When asked about the state of health in the profession, half of the respondents consider it their purpose (52.0%), 15.2% consider it important what they do, 9.3% intend to expand the opportunities of the profession and open new horizons for modern teachers. The well-being of the rest can be called unfavorable, as they chose options about the tolerance of the profession, the need to earn a living, the prospects for implementation outside of school, etc. Only 19.6 % of respondents gave 10 points out of 10 to the question " Does your work allow you to realize yourself in the profession as a person?", 9 points – 11.8 %, 8 points – 23.5 %.

Most respondents consider the main tasks of the teacher to be "organizing the practical activities of the student" (79.0 %) and "actualizing the student's need to learn" (60.3%). As their pedagogical ideals in the profession, many call the classics of pedagogy: V. A. Sukhomlinsky, K. D. Ushinsky, A. S. Makarenko, Sh.A. Amonashvili. In the educational process, the teacher should, first, "cultivate the habit of independent learning" (49.8 %), "not only teach, but also educate the student" (47.5%), "give the student the opportunity to believe in themselves" (33.7%).

The teacher himself must have subject competence (37.0%) and be an interesting person, an example to follow (23.6%), and then possess methodological excellence (11.2%), pedagogical technique (11.1%), general culture (10.3%).

Among their professional values, teachers more often chose "constant self-improvement" (47.3 %), "knowledge of their subject" (40.7%), "the opportunity to transfer their skills and knowledge" (29.5%), "freedom" in the pedagogical process (28.4%), "teacher-student relationship" (26.6%). The least "valuable" were: "the desire to be in the center of people's attention" (1.2 %)," the continuation of family traditions "(3.3%) and" a detailed work process " (4.0%).

When describing the teaching position, teachers most often chose the options "I constantly analyze my teaching activities" (52.5 %) and "I am passionate about finding new forms, methods and technologies of work" (48.8 %). The answer option "I strive to create my own system of interaction with students" was indicated by 38.9 % of respondents," I strive for an optimal style of interaction with different subjects of the educational process "– 36.9 %, "I perceive my professional activity as a basis for personal development" – 28.6 %. 12.9 % "separate professional and personal life", 1.4 % "deny the necessity or possibility of educational meanings of pedagogical activity".

75.3 % of teachers had opportunities for learning and growth during the past school year and realized them. From their point of view, it makes sense to get acquainted with advanced technologies (47.1 %), to get information about the updated content of the subject (35.0 %), to better understand the problems of modernizing school education (33.4 %). They encourage professional development, first, "the opportunity to improve the qualification category" (52.1 %) and "requirements for teaching work" (51.0 %).

We can describe the communication with other participants of the educational process in the work of teachers in the following answers to the questions. As an important professional value of the teacher, 19.9% of respondents noted "constant communication with people"," teacher – student relationship" – 26.6 %. 81.2 % of teachers in general "know what is expected of them at work", 67.9 % noted that in general their opinion is "considered at work". 54.5 % noted that "recognition of colleagues", "participation in public activities" – 55.5 %, "self – development and self-education" – 97.4% were important and significant for teachers.

As incentives for professional development, "the interests of students" are noted by 42.2% of respondents, "the interest of the school administration" – 25.2 %, "the requests of parents" – 8.2 %. 21.0 % of teachers make professional development plans together with the school management and colleagues, 20.1 % – coordinate them with the management, 11.3% discuss the results of advanced training courses with the management, the rest – either independently or according to plans "from above".

Communication characteristics are not considered by teachers as deficient or problematic, only 1.1 % of respondents named problems of communication with parents and children among the three main problems in work. 10.8 % of teachers noted that there is a lack of "live communication with professional colleagues". None of the respondents indicated any problems in communication with the school administration.

Findings

In general, the responses of the respondents allowed us to form the following professional portrait of the teacher of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

In general, the teacher likes to work with children, some consider the teaching profession their purpose, but you also need to earn a living, and you must endure the shortcomings of the profession.

The teacher is primarily focused on self-assessment and self-analysis in terms of the content of his subject, is in search of new, more advanced methods of work, the organization of practical activities of the student.

In practice, the teacher does not have enough time to communicate with professional colleagues, as a rule, he plans his professional development independently, sometimes at the "direction from above", does not consider the interests of students and even more so their parents.

The teacher considers "organizational skills", "the ability to educate students" and "be an interesting person" as professionally significant qualities and does not consider such qualities as "high level of thinking development", "general culture", "methodological literacy".

The obtained characteristics in no way detract from the highly professional and personal achievements of individual teachers of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as everywhere we have talented, motivated, inventive teachers. But, in our opinion, the average portrait should also indicate the problems of the profession.

Conclusion

When solving the strategic goals of the development of the education system in the country as a whole and in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in particular, the teacher or teacher plays a key role. And the higher the requirements, the more difficult it will be for the real teaching staff to ensure these achievements, to take the "high bar" in their professional development. Define measures of support and participation – tasks and responsibilities to the teaching staff of science, higher education, and society.

The article summarizes the approaches to drawing up and defines the essential characteristics of a professional portrait of a teacher. Based on the results of a sociological study of teachers ' subjective perceptions of themselves, their competencies and difficulties, their role in the development of the education system and professional activity in general, we have tried to identify problems in the professional position, professional communications and personal competencies of teachers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Acknowledgments

The study was carried out within the framework of the project "Comprehensive study of professional deficits of teachers in the Krasnoyarsk territory", conducted with the financial support of the Krasnoyarsk regional science Foundation based on the Krasnoyarsk state pedagogical University named after V. P. Astafiev.

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