Abstract:

The socio-psychological well-being of teachers is one of the important factors affecting the quality of education. The Soviet system of education was characterized by stability and a long time existed unchanged. Reform of this system in the post-Soviet period and Russia's integration into the common European educational space have a great impact on socio-psychological well-being of teachers, which is at the same time depends on the political, socioeconomic conditions in a specific period of time. The main goal of the study was to compare the socio-psychological well-being of teachers in the Soviet period (1989) and in conditions of modern Russia (2016).

The research method is based on questionnaires. 1989 and 2016 questionnaires consist of four identical blocks of questions: personal details; job satisfaction; social attitudes and value orientations of teachers; image of a teacher. An additional set of questions regarding the attitude of teachers to some modern trends of basic education was added in 2016. The sample of respondents included 590 teachers in 1989 and 529 teachers in 2016 at all levels of school education.

According to teachers’ responses in 2016 the most topical problems of school education are: the issue of education curriculum, the issue of education quality and its control, the issue of use of modern learning technologies, the issue of inclusive education.

In comparison with the Soviet period teachers nowadays are less satisfied with the job, the number of teachers who consider the work as the main priority in life has decreased twice. The main reason is the decline in material wellbeing. Despite that, the vast majority of respondents in both samples don’t consider changing the occupation. This may emerge from the fact that financially-secured life is not highly ranked by the teachers in the hierarchy of their life values, both in Soviet and post-Soviet times.

However, the hierarchy of values has partially changed. In 1989 at the top was family, then friends and respect of co-workers, but in 2016 top three values are family, good education, life wisdom.

The image of a teacher hasn’t changed much among respondents during these 25 years. The most popular self-image is still associated with the Russian idiom "a squirrel on a wheel," which symbolizes intensive work and relatively less effect. The respondents from both samples noted mostly positive attributes of teachers, in addition such traits as responsibility, respect for others’ tastes and customs, tolerance to others' errors and misconceptions have become more valuable. However, according to respondents, in public opinion the image of a teacher was and still remains rather negative. There are twice more of those who blame mass media among contemporary teachers.

Keywords:

Teachers, social-psychological well-being, job satisfaction, value orientations, image of a teacher.