Το Κοινωνικό Κύρος του Επαγγέλματος του/της Νηπιαγωγού

Abstract

The main focus of this research is the kindergarten teacher, the kindergarten itself, and their social status, an important research field in Education and Sociology of Education. There are several Greek studies regarding the teachers and professors, but not with regard to kindergarten teachers, where the literature is still sparse. The purpose of this research is to investigate how kindergartners perceive their offer to the community, the social prestige of their profession in Greece, how other teachers see them and how the prestige they receive affects them regarding their professional and personal space. A questionnaire of a Likert type scale was used to collect answers by kindergarten teachers from public kindergartens in Crete. The data set was analyzed using the statistical package SPSS. The results showed that preschool teachers, although they find that their offer is important, they agree with the general view that their social status is lower than that of other educational professions, except those in Infant Care. Based on the results, we make suggestions of administrative, social and educational nature, aiming to raise the social status of pre-school and kindergarten teachers in Greece.