| Abstract [eng] |
The thesis covers the theoretical aspectsof the problems and possibilities of teacher's careers and the current situation regarding it in schools of Jurbarkas municipality. Education policy in Lithuania has many challenges: from one side – there are new requirements for the teachers and the need for various competencies, because there‘s a willingness for better results. On the other hand – we are seeing the shortage of teachers: the community of the teachers is getting older - there are not many young teachers. The situation regarding the managers of educational institutions is similar. Even though there's no shortage of teachers in the education system in Jurbarkas, the same can‘t be said about the school‘s principals'. There‘s a hypothesis: teachers see their profession as an opportunity to grow in their professional field, rather than an opportunity to become the manager of the institution. The objective of the research is the teacher‘s professional career - the problems and the opportunities in the schools of Jurbarkas municipality. The main aim of the research: to analyze the features of Jurbarkas schools teachers' professional careers. To reach these objectives one has to analyze other academic researches covering this topic, also analyze strategic policy plans of schools to understand if the development of teachers' professional careers is included in the policy as a strategic objective. This also has to be done to find out Jurbarkas' municipality teacher’s opinions about the opportunities of a professional career. Finally – to present the conclusion and recommendations by using the academic literature along with the results of the research. The research methods used: the analysis of academic literature, documents, questionnaire, statistical analysis, and other sources. Six schools were chosen to analyze strategic plans. A qualitative analysis was conducted. There were 76 respondents from 11 schools who participated in this analysis. This work is based on the notion, that the professional career of the teacher is impacted by the social, economic, and technological environment. Professional development is based on lifelong learning. The manager, innovator, and organizer of a teacher's professional career is the teacher himself. The majority of respondents acknowledged, that the conditions for career, professional development, and leadership in Jurbarkas municipality are sufficient. The majority of respondents are satisfied with their profession. The result of the research partially affirms the hypothesis, that teacher's associate their career more with professional development than with the opportunity to become the managers of education institution, because the greater part of the teachers responded, that they wouldn‘t like to become the head of the educational institution. On the other hand, young teachers are eager to get this kind of carrer, even though there is shortage of this kind of teachers in educational community. There's a minor disclosure about the planning of teachers‘ professional career in this research. |
