Scientific Educational Studies

Abstract

Teachers are undoubtedly one of the most important elements of our education system. Creating teacher quality within this system is an important dimension. Teachers in today's education community need to constantly improve and renew themselves. Adapting to technology, embracing new teaching approaches, and helping students develop 21st century skills are essential requirements for being a successful teacher. In today's digital age, also known as the information age, teacher quality has become an important issue both in the world and in our country. Teachers are the cornerstone of education systems and they must provide quality education to ensure that students grow up successfully. Various steps can be taken to improve the quality of teachers. Teacher training programs and trainings are an important opportunity for teacher candidates to improve their pedagogical knowledge and skills. In order for teachers to continue their professional development, continuous education opportunities should be provided and they should be encouraged to follow innovations. Qualified and well-trained career teachers play a critical role in increasing students' academic success as well as providing them with life skills and values. Nowadays, the practice of promotion in the career stages of the teaching profession has become a subject that is widely discussed and on which no consensus can be reached. The teacher career ladder exam, which was first held in 2006, was not held until November 19, 2022, and it continued to remain on the agenda and maintained its impact with the exam held on this date. In this context, the aim of the research is to reveal their views on teaching career stages. For this purpose, the opinions of a total of 16 teachers, 8 women and 8 men, consisting of 8 classroom and branch teachers working in the Vezirköprü district of Samsun province in the 2022-2023 academic year, were consulted regarding their teaching career stages. In selecting the teachers to conduct the study, attention was paid to their ease of accessibility, a balanced distribution of men and women, and diversity of professional seniority, age and education. As the research method, the phenomenology method, one of the qualitative research methods, was chosen in order to reveal the thoughts of the interviewed teachers. A semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used to collect research data and consists of five open-ended questions prepared for the purpose. The content of the questions asked includes teachers' general opinions about the career stages of specialist teaching and head teaching. The data obtained as a result of the research were evaluated by content analysis. In the findings obtained as a result of the content analysis, it is seen that it is mostly related to merit, equality, teaching reputation, justice, creating a discriminatory effect, and economic return. According to the results of the research; Teachers stated that if the career ladder application is done correctly and fairly, it is a positive practice and will increase the quality of education and may have an encouraging effect. However, teachers expressed the opinion that the rules, criteria and content of the current system should be redefined, that the implementation should be carried out fairly, and that the economic aspect outweighs the need. Teachers mostly gave negative answers about the form and content of the exam, saying that it should be handled on a branch-by-branch basis, that the exam alone is not sufficient and its discrimination is very low, that it is an application contrary to the nature of the profession, and that it is humiliating and damaging to reputation. Positive and negative reflections of the career ladder application were identified, and they stated that it would create a discriminatory effect and disrupt the school climate, but a salary increase would have a positive economic impact.