Abstract:

The aim of this study is to present some results from a comparative research of the workload and professional activities structure found out by primary school teachers in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland. Although so far there has been accomplished a bunch of research studies on the topic of teachers' workload, a lot of them were done via questionnaires. They gave teachers' estimates of time spent at work and about the scope of their professional activities. To avoid any misinterpretations, our research was carried out via repeated in-depth studies - ‘professiographies’. This method was chosen because professiography engages in systematically gathering, describing, analysing and evaluating professional activities with reference to personal and professional requirements for their performance (Easthope & Easthope, 2000; Mc.Culloch et al., 2000; Hustler et al., 2003; Webb et al, 2004; Webb, 2008; Vronsky, 2012).

In our research the professiographies were focused on precise mapping of individual primary teacher’s activities in the real school process during several weeks. Teachers recorded their daily work activity in their professiographic spreadsheets in minutes. Through their recording data in three research phases in different seasons of the school year, data about professional activities that shape the teaching profession, as well as the timeframe in which these activities occur during the week were collected. The research sample consisted of 224 Slovak primary teachers, 102 Czech primary teachers and 111 Polish primary teachers.

The researchers compared the time spent in activities specifically related to teaching and preparation for teaching, but also activities associated with other roles of the teacher, with teachers’ training and self-study, and even with extra-curricular, public and other activities related to the teaching profession.

The Slovak-Czech-Polish comparison showed that the respondents - teachers from the observed countries - carry out professional activities not only in their working time but also out-of-work, including the weekends. Slovak and Czech respondents showed the greatest work performance on Mondays and Poles on Thursdays. The comparison of the individual days activities of teachers showed that all three groups of teachers spent the shortest amount of hours at school on Fridays. The most frequent and time-consuming activities were, predictably, related to the teaching process. Overall, Slovak and Czech respondents carried out less often individual work with children than the Polish ones. On the other side, Polish respondents indicated less time related to their own development. Despite the differences mentioned in the observed categories, the data about the profession of Slovak, Czech and Polish primary school teachers were mutually comparable and compatible. A comparison with other international studies is also included in the study.

Keywords:

Primary school teacher, professiography, professional activities, professional workload.