Dream vs Reality: Voices of Preschool Teachers on the Process of Professionalization in Turkey

Teaching as a profession starts with “a passion for teaching”. This passion is reflected into teaching and professional practices of the teacher as well as his or her competencies as a teacher. This study aims to examine... [ view full abstract ]

Teaching as a profession starts with “a passion for teaching”. This passion is reflected into teaching and professional practices of the teacher as well as his or her competencies as a teacher. This study aims to examine the professionalization process of preschool teachers. In line with this purpose, we aim to reveal the reasons why they want to be preschool teachers, their perceptions towards the profession and the initial challenges encountered. This study used qualitative method and face to face interviews were conducted with 47 preschool teachers. “Love towards children and family guidance” appeared to have role on the reasons for choosing teaching children as a profession. Some of the participants also noted “lack of professional career options” as one of the underlying reasons for following a career path as a preschool teacher. As for their perceptions of the preschool teachers, their views appeared to extend on two extreme spectrums, such as “being the caretaker of the young population” and “having a passion to play a significant role in the future of children”. Preschool teachers’ accounts about their experiences in the career entry phase showed that all of them felt the feelings of anxiety and fear as well as encountering roadblocks due to the nature of the profession. They asserted that they did not have any clue about the ways in which they could overcome the initial challenges. They emphasized the importance of commitment and passion to be a better teacher to open career paths for their children. This study is expected to understand and improve the work and lives of preschool teachers and bring unique insights to teachers and teacher educators as well as contributing to the scholarship of early childhood education.

Keywords: Early childhood education, Preschool teachers, Professionalization, Teacher’s professionalization