Improving the professional status of teaching: perspectives of future teachers, current teachers, and education professors

A US national sample of 2947 future teachers, 457 current teachers, and 1219 education faculty members was asked to rate the importance of various suggestions for improving the professional status of teaching. The results indicated that future teachers differed from current teachers and education professors. The results also suggested that all these groups rated increasing extrinsic and intrinsic rewards for teaching the most important. They felt raising the standards of teacher education program and teacher certification was also important. However, they felt that eliminating undergraduate education majors/courses was much less important. Implications for the theory and practice of improving the professional status of teaching are discussed in light of the findings. ( 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.