Postrzeganie atrakcyjności wykonywanego zawodu przez nauczycieli w Polsce
Perception of Attractiveness of the Profession by Teachers in Poland

Summary/Abstract: Understanding perception of attractiveness of the teaching profession from the perspective of teachers active on a popular social media platform is the primary goal of this article. Teachers’ protests in Poland taking place in 2019 and resulting initiatives such as Educational Roundtables and Civic Educational Consultations focussed Polish public debate’s attention on issues facing the education system. These issues decrease the competitive position of teaching against other professions. Considering the technological revolution and social and economic value of teachers’ work, their role will only become more important. Given the gap in research concerning the attractiveness of teaching in Poland, based on existing research the authors identified 12 determinants of teaching attractiveness and used a survey to understand teachers’ rating of each of them. The authors shared the survey on Facebook among teachers’ groups and via email through the snowball technique. 1550 responses from teachers had been collected in the period between January 5th 2021 and January 23rd 2021. Polish teachers provided similar reasons for deciding to join a teaching workforce to their EU counterparts. Majority of teachers consider their occupation to be unattractive. Not only majority of determinants were considered repelling, but also the repelling determinants were scored more extremely than the attracting determinants. Stress level, number of hours worked outside of the teaching hours and social status were rated the lowest. Professional development opportunities were rated the highest among the attracting factors. While the sample is demographically similar to the teaching population in Poland, the research was conducted using purposive, not representative sampling, and behaviors and judgements of teachers active on social media may differ from the general teaching population.

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