A Pareto Analysis of Status of Teaching Profession in Turkey

This research aims to determine the reasons for the low status of the teaching profession and the proposals for improving the status of the teaching profession in the context of experts’ and teachers’ views. Having a qualitative research design, the research has employed phenomenological design. The research group of the study consists of 5 academicians who are in the field of educational sciences at Kahramanmara？ Süt？ü ？mam University and 10 teachers from different branches at state schools affiliated with the Ministry of Education. They were selected through criterion sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods. The study was basically carried out in two lines. The first focused on a fishbone diagram (cause and effect diagram) and pareto analysis (ABC analysis) conducted in order to determine the reasons for the low status of the teaching profession. In the other line that is intended to disclose proposals for improving the status of the profession, the data obtained from the participants' views were analyzed through content analysis. Research results have suggested eight major reasons for the low status of the teaching profession including teacher-training institutions, working conditions, economic conditions, media, society, teacher qualifications, junior-top administrators and educational policies