TEACHER COMMITMENT IN PROMOTING EDUCATION: THE NEED OF THE HOUR

A.S.Arul Lawrence and 2T.Deepa

ABSTRACT Teacher commitment is a key factor influencing the teaching-learning process. It is the psychological identification of the individual teacher with the school and the subject matter or goals, and the intention of that teacher to maintain organizational membership and become involved in the job well beyond personal interest. Teachers' commitment is thought to decrease progressively over the course of their teaching career (Fraser, Draper & Taylor, 1998). At the beginning of a teachers career, there is an early stage of commitment to teaching associated with the choice of professional identity, followed by a stage of experimentation and search for new challenges. Teachers often experience a stage of conservatism, which can lead to eventual disengagement (Huberman, 1993). This transition from an enthusiastic engagement with the profession to a more distanced and limited involvement, reduces a teacher's willingness to reform classroom practice, engagement in whole school initiatives and levels of participation in extra-curricular activities. A decrease in commitment levels during the course of the teaching career is also problematic in relation to the retention of experienced teachers in the classroom. This paper will explore the importance of teacher commitment in promoting education.

Introduction 'Commitment' is a term that teachers frequently use in describing themselves and each other (Nias, 1981). It is a word they use to distinguish those who are 'caring', 'dedicated' and who 'take the job seriously' from those who 'put their own interests first'. Some teachers see their commitment as part of their professional identity, it defines them and their work and they 'get a lot of enjoyment from this' (Elliott & Crosswell, 2001). Other teachers feel the demands of teaching to be significant, requiring great personal investment and view it as a job that can 'take over your life' (Nias, 1981). These teachers often limit their commitment and their engagement with the school, as a means of survival. In some cases, these teachers choose to leave the profession altogether. For these reasons, teacher commitment has been found to be a critical predictor of teachers' work performance, absenteeism, burnout and turnover, as well as having an important influence on students' achievement, and attitudes toward school (Tsui & Cheng, 1999). Teacher Commitment Commitment is part of a teacher's affective or emotional reaction to their experience in a school setting (Ebmeier & Nicklaus, 1999). It can be seen to be part of a learned behaviour or attitude associated with the professional behaviour of teachers. From these

Principal-in-charge, St.Joseph College of Education, Kadamboduvalvu, Nanguneri627108. E-mail: arullawrence@gmail.com 2 Asst. Professor of History, St.Joseph College of Education, Kadamboduvalvu, Nanguneri627108.

affective reactions to the school setting, teachers make decisions about their level of willingness to personally invest to that particular setting, or particular group of students. Becker (1960) and Lacey (1997) define commitment as the investment in a particular career, in this case, teaching. Whereas, Lortie (1975) regards commitment as the willingness an individual enacts in investing personal resources to the teaching task. Commitment is a sense of fidelity and adherence. The sense of belonging in the core of commitment concept causes a constitution of a kind of connection between organization and individual and makes the individuals gather round a common value, aim and culture. Dimensions of Teacher Commitment The teacher commitment is conceptualised as being multi-dimensional (Nias, 1981). According to Dave and Rajput (1998) five dimensions in teachers commitment have been identified. a) Commitment to the learner: includes genuine love for the learner, readiness to help the learner, enthusiasm, friendship, concern for their all-round development etc. b) Commitment to the society: awareness of, and concern about, the impact of the teachers work on the development of the community, democratic values and the nation. c) Commitment to the profession: development of a professional ethic and sense of vocation. d) Commitment to achieve excellence: in all aspects of a teachers roles and responsibilities, care and concern for doing everything in the classroom, in the school. e) Commitment to basic human values: to become a role model in the classroom and community through genuine and consistent practice of professional values such as impartiality, objectivity and intellectual honesty, national loyalty etc. Types of Teacher Commitment Teacher Commitment has been viewed as a multidimensional concept. For instance, Meyer and Allen (1991) reviewed prior research to define three dimensions of commitment that they labeled affective, normative and continuance.

1. Affective Commitment is the teachers positive emotional attachment to the school for the learning of the students. A teacher who is affectively committed strongly identifies with the goals of the school and desires to remain a part of it. This teacher commits to the school because he/she wants to. 2. Normative Commitment is the teachers perceived obligation to remain the school or stay because of the feelings of obligation. The individual commits to and remains with an organization because of feelings of obligation. These feelings may derive from many sources. For example, the school may have invested resources in training a teacher who then feels a moral obligation to put forth effort on the job and stay with the organization to repay the debt. It may also reflect an internalized norm, developed before the person joins the organization through family or other socialization processes, that one should be loyal to ones organization. The employee stays with the organization because he/she ought to. 3. Continuance Commitment the teacher commits to the school because he/she perceives high costs of losing the job, including economic costs (such as pension accruals) and social costs (friendship ties with co-workers) that would be incurred. The employee remains a member of the organization because he/she has to. Challenges for Teacher Commitment Teacher commitment may be enhanced or diminished by factors such as student behaviour, collegial and administrative support, parental demands, and national education policies (Day, 2004). UNESCO International Conference on Education (1996) suggests that reform policies in many countries in recent years have led to deterioration in the working conditions of teachers, in turn producing demoralization, abandonment of the profession, absenteeism, and a negative impact on the quality of education offered to students (Tedesco, 1997). The following are some of the hazards to teacher commitment in education: 1. Lack of self-motivation 2. Monotonous way of teaching 3. Too much importance given to completion of portions 4. Lack of encouragement from higher officials/ management 5. Insufficient salary

6. Lack of increments and incentives 7. Commercialization of Education Conceptions of Teacher Commitment Six conceptions of teacher commitment have been identified and reported here, as distinct yet related. These represent different ways that teachers perceive, understand and conceptualise the phenomenon of teacher commitment (Crosswell, L.J. & Elliott, R.G., 2004). 1. Teacher commitment as a passion. This sees teacher commitment as a passion or a positive emotional attachment to the work involved in teaching generally, or a specific aspect of teaching. 2. Teacher commitment as an investment of time outside of contact hours with students. This identified teacher commitment as an investment of extra time outside of expected contact hours with students. This extra time is discussed as either visible time invested at the school site or, invisible time invested off the school site. 3. Teacher commitment as a focus on the individual needs of the students. This considers teacher commitment to be a sharp focus on the needs of the student. Student needs are discussed as either emotional and/ or academic. 4. Teacher commitment as a responsibility to impart knowledge, attitudes, values and beliefs. This considers teacher commitment as taking responsibility for imparting a body of knowledge and/or certain attitudes, values and beliefs. Teachers who hold this conception place great value on the role that they play in preparing students for the future and take responsibility for passing on a core set of skills, understandings and values. 5. Teacher commitment as maintaining professional knowledge. This views teacher commitment as the maintenance of professional knowledge and ongoing professional learning. Within this conceptualisation is the notion that committed teachers are proactive in their professional development and in many cases are willing to share with and learn from their colleagues.

6. Teacher commitment as engagement with the school community. This considers teacher commitment to be the willingness to engage with the school and the schools community. Within this conceptualisation is the belief that teachers have a professional responsibility that reaches out beyond the four walls of the classroom and perhaps even extends beyond the boundary of the school. Ways and means to inculcating Teacher Commitment The following are a few signposts, which if seriously followed, can be useful for most of the teachers to become passionately committed. 1. Realizing the responsibility: Teachers are the sculptors of the future society. Therefore, they must realize their role and a great responsibility that has been entrusted in their hands in producing good citizens with great democratic values. 2. Developing self-esteem: The teachers with higher self-esteem are more flexible in their thinking, more willing to learn and more effective in making their students learning. 3. Being interesting and interested: Most of the teachers who inspire their students have varied personal professional qualities-they help students to enquire, explore, examine, question, reason and solve their own problems. They have the knack of making education entertaining and entertainment education. 4. Choosing a mentor: A young teacher can get the help of another teacher whom he admires. Even experienced teachers can make advantage of special mentors. 5. Making teaching meaningful: A good teacher relates the subject to life and makes his students know why they are studying a particular subject or lesson and how they can be benefited by it. In this way their teaching becomes meaningful. 6. Controlling and caring: What is needed is to promote self-discipline and encourage teachers and students to respect and care for each other. 7. Developing cultural sensitivity: It is the moral responsibility of passionately committed teacher to cultivate cultural sensitivity and appreciate cultural diversity and teach the same to his students. 8. Finding time for being alone: To be passionately committed, teachers must find time for solitude to reflect in private moments on his personal professional life. 5

Such a self-introspection would not only give them opportunity for selfimprovement but would make them able to inspire their students to do the same. 9. Determine core values: Robert L. Fried (1995) advises teachers to ask themselves a specific set of questions to clarify their core values and ideas about education. 10. Provide meaningful challenges: Fried explains that teachers can develop their passion for teaching by introducing meaningful challenges or real jobs for pupils to "plan, organize, carry out and complete for the good of the community." For example, pupils can take part in "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" projects. Conclusion Education is, indeed, a process of human enlightenment and empowerment. It is not a product to be sold and bought in the academic market. In the name of high surrounding words like globalization, professionalization, commercialization and privatization, we are tending to convert educational process into a market process. School can never be a factory and teachers can never be technocrats. Likewise, students cannot be treated as finished products. It is high time that interface between commitment among teachers and their performance is empirically tested, analysed and explained. It is indeed, the need of the hour. There has to be a humanistic approach to the teaching-learning process. Teacher commitment indicates that teachers with high levels of commitment work harder, demonstrate stronger affiliation to their schools, and show more desire to carry out the goals of teaching than teachers with low levels of commitment. More importantly, students of highly committed teachers are more likely to learn material and develop a positive attitude toward school than those of teachers with low levels of commitment. Teachers are to imbibe a high level of commitment to learning, and the society should learn that the teachers are not a special brand of workers or employees but it is the most respected and revered section of the population. Only then, we will be able to achieve the goals of education and make our nation a true leader of the academic world.

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