Teaching is Dangerous?

TEACHING: A DANGEROUS PROFESSION?

RUSSIAN SURVEY SEEMS TO SAY SO!

By Stephen Wilson

Russian teachers like here consider their job dangerous, thankless and grossly underpaid.

 

MOSCOW  -- Is taking up teaching in Russia a high risk option? Is it on par with other professions deemed dangerous such as firemen, ambulance drivers or

policemen? The answer is 'yes' if we accept at face value the findings of

a recent survey of teachers by sociologists at the Higher School of

Economic in Moscow and their colleagues . The on-line survey, which

interviewed 2800 teachers from 72 regions of Russia, found that 70% of

teachers admitted that they were the victims of bullying on a daily basis.

A staggering number of teachers,15 %, claim they have been physically

assaulted some time in their careers, 30% reported receiving anonymous

insults, which sometimes include threats via letters posted to social net

sites.

According to Darya Saprikina, "Amongst the most widespread answers

we received from respondents , were that students teased, provoked,

ignored them, violated discipline, refused to carry out the demands of

teachers and harshly judged their personal lives." Darya also found that

as many as 17% of teachers can't afford clothes and shoes, and some

lack money even for food!

Despite a so-called rise in pay, respect for teachers has not increased

but continues to fall encouraging some observers to speak of 'A Crisis

of Authority'. Why might the respect for teachers have fallen ? In a

society where the main emphasis is on highly materialistic values where

people often judge you by how much income you derive , what clothes

you wear and what kind of car you drive, then you can see how some

children who inherit social prejudices might tease a teacher for wearing

worn-out clothes or shoes. A mother told Darya that it was unpleasant

for her daughter to see a teacher drinking tea alone in a particular

blouse.

A survey carried out in October 2017 by the All Russian Study of

Social Attitudes found that 42% of Russians thought that teachers

had less respect than in Soviet times.

The dilemma is that teachers feel they have nobody to share their

problems. If they inform the head of the school about their predicament

then they will be accused of not doing their job well! If they complain to

the parents , they might encounter further threats from the parents who

go into 'a denial mode ' saying : "My Dima would never behave like

that". Teachers feel extremely vulnerable because they have little

job protection and can be fired for petty reasons.

The Russian trade union Teacher stated that the administration of

schools can use aggressive parents as a weapon to contain and

control teachers who are fighting for improved pay and better conditions.

According to Vsevolod Lukhovitsky, the chairman of Teacher, "Now

any complaint from parents gets attention very quickly . It would be very

good if those complaints were examined by an independent commission

consisting of teachers' representatives and parents. But parents don't

trust teachers and the system of education, and the administration uses

those complaints as a hook to catch teachers. Very often a situation arises

when the head calls a teacher who refused to give a student the mark

five or is simply too actively observing his rights, and tells the teacher that

he has a thick folder of complaints from the parents of teachers, where they

write you are not good and if you don't behave well, I can use this. Now it

has become very popular to fire teachers for 'amoral behavior'. There is

nothing concrete about this term 'amoral act'. It can include anything a

head wants, such as when a teacher uses a careless expression in class,

or when a teacher raises his voice, or a note or photo on a social site."

For example, there have been cases where a teacher was fired because

she displayed a photo of herself, in a bikini, on the beach or for writing a

poem expressing particular political views at odds with some zealous parents

or head.

It is small wonder that more than 70% of graduates of teacher training

institutes and universities in Russia don't even begin their teaching career

never mind finish after a few years. The findings of such a survey won't

exactly inspire them.