Endangered Species in Teaching Profession: Perceptions of Male and Female Prospective Teachers about Teaching Career

Abstract

Teaching profession is considered as low paid profession and less privileged by society. The societal and economic norms ensure unbalance gender participation in teaching. The present study was designed to find out the factors responsible for endangered species in teaching profession and female choice of teaching profession. The population was all prospective teachers enrolled in
education discipline in university level. Using random sampling method, 190 trainee teachers were approached from four universities. The self-developed instrument, Gender Disparity Survey [GDS] was used. The result showed that the topmost indicator responsible to choose teaching profession as career was personal views of trainee teachers. It was concluded that male trainee teachers had
personally and academically more restrictions and barriers in joining teaching as career than females. They have restrictions from families and society to choose teaching than females. The rural as well as urban areas prospective teachers had same personal choice and academic support for teaching career. The rural areas prospective teachers had better support from families to select teaching as
career. It is suggested that media, parents, and society should play their roles to give due privilege to teachers in teaching profession.