Value Styles of Social and Professional Demand of Teachers

Abstract

This article presents the results of an empirical study of values styles of socio-­professional demand for educators. The paper emphasizes the fact that socio-­economic globalization processes have brought about growth of social inequality and marginalization of entire social groups, resulting in cutting off a significant part of human potential from the sphere of material and socio-­cultural production. The need to create scientifically based mechanisms for the effective implementation of the social and professional resources of the individual. The hypothesis of the study was the assumption that there are meaningful value styles of socio-­professional relevance for the individual, which differ in a combination of expressed parameters of socio-­professional relevance, and value and meaningful life orientations. This assumption will allow building relevant routes for educators to achieve their social and professional relevancy. The following methods were used in the research: questionnaire of socio-­professional relevance of personality (E. V. Kharitonova), Schwarz’ technique for studying personal values (Sh. Schwarz); meaningful life orientations test (D. Leont’yev). In the cluster analysis, the sample produced four clusters mixed by gender. Two of these are characteristic of teachers / educators in the first period of middle adulthood and two are characteristic of educators in the second period of middle adulthood. In general, the clusters differ from each other in the degree of expression of both, socio-­professional relevance and value and meaningful life orientations. Of the four value and meaningful styles of educators with different levels of SPFL, only one (cluster 4) showed high levels of expression of relevance, life meaningfulness, and of the majority of value orientations. Two clusters (the first and the third) exhibited average indicators, while the second cluster revealed low indicators of the parameters under analysis. Cluster 1 (the most common, characteristic of educators of the first period of adulthood) are medium-­demand professionals who focus on family safety, health and meaning of life and concentrate on maintaining health; they are self-sufficient and perceive life as meaningful and purposeful. Cluster 2 (the least common, characteristic of educators of the first period of adulthood) are unclaimed professionals, who focus on family safety and health and close friends; are guided in their behavior by freedom to plan and choose their activities, but are not content with their lives. Cluster 3 (third in prevalence, characteristic of educators of the second period of adulthood) are medium-­demand professionals, focused on family safety, maintaining health, showing respect for parents and older people; they are not fully confident in their ability to control their lives and to freely make decisions and implement them. Cluster 4 (the second most common, characteristic of educators of the second period of adulthood) are in-demand professionals, oriented toward family safety, health, and the meaning of life; they are responsive to other people’s needs and view their life as meaningful and purposeful. The presence of key performance indicators in terms of social and professional demand, value-­based and meaningful life orientations makes it possible to classify this cluster as a reference cluster.