Occupational alienation and its dependents among teachers; A sociological study of the lived experience of teachers in Tehran

Document Type : .

Authors

1 Ph.D. student in Sociology of Social Development – Rural, Department of Social Development Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran.

2 Associate research professor of Sociology, Department of Social Studies, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.

3 Ph.D.Student in Sociology, social problems study of iran, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Study,Tehran,Iran

Abstract

From the perspective of organizational sociology, few field researchers have investigated the lived experience of teachers in the formal education organization as a modern organization. The current research was conducted with the qualitative approach to study the situation of alienation formation among teachers. Therefore, it will be a basis for policy-making in order to reduce the dependent factors of alienation among teachers. In this regard, interviews were conducted with 13 teachers working in primary and secondary schools in Tehran. The analysis of the study data and the constructed "theoretical model" show that: the causal conditions "impossibility of organizational participation", "lack of professional specialization", "lack of social/organizational support", "lack of feeling of professional competence" and "Financial dissatisfaction" has brought about the phenomenon of "occupational alienation" among teachers. In this situation, it seems that teachers encounter the phenomenon of occupational alienation by adopting the strategies of "implementation of efficient rules", "pragmatic activism", and "satisfaction discourse". The outcomes of taking these strategies for the studied teachers were "the depletion of the teacher's scientific activity" "learned indifference" and "relying on the interactions of colleagues".
 
Keywords: Job alienation, Lack of organizational participation, Lack of professional specialization, Financial dissatisfaction, qualitative approach
 
 
 
 
 
 
Introduction
Recent findings show that teachers, as the main actors of the educational institution, are the most significant variable in students' learning. In other words, the functions of the education system are based on the motivated, capable, and powerful teacher as the main agent of this system. Due to such substantial role of teachers, researchers have considered internal and external factors affecting teachers' performance as the subject of research. The lived experiences of a large number of teachers have expressed stress and exhaustion.
As a result, teacher exhaustion has been one of the topics that attracted many educational researchers during the last decades, until recently, positive psychology introduced the concept of job passion in relation to teachers' efficiency. Achieving the functions of education and training requires creativity, dynamism and non-stationarity of this organization and its main agents, i.e. teachers. Reviewing previous research and the opinions of experts have shown that the education system in Iran has faced many challenges: Lack of motivation, lack of job belongingness and financial dissatisfaction have always been introduced as factors affecting the dysfunctions of this system.
 
Goals
From the perspective of organizational sociology, few field researchers have investigated the lived experience of teachers in the formal education organization as a modern organization. The current research was conducted with the qualitative approach to study the situation of alienation formation among teachers. Therefore, it will be a basis for policy-making in order to reduce the dependent factors of alienation among teachers.
 
Methodology
In qualitative research, the following methods were used;
- "Documentary analysis" for reviewing previous research.
- "grounded theory method" for analyzing qualitative data and generating paradigm models and theories. To do so interviews were conducted with 13 teachers working in primary and secondary schools in Tehran.
 
Findings
The analysis of the study data and the constructed "theoretical model" show that: the causal conditions "impossibility of organizational participation", "lack of professional specialization", "lack of social/organizational support", "lack of feeling of professional competence" and "Financial dissatisfaction" has brought about the phenomenon of "occupational alienation" among teachers. In this situation, it seems that teachers encounter the phenomenon of occupational alienation by adopting the strategies of "implementation of efficient rules", "pragmatic activism", and "satisfaction discourse". The outcomes of taking these strategies for the studied teachers were "the depletion of the teacher's scientific activity" "learned indifference" and "relying on the interactions of colleagues".
 
 
Conclusions
Regarding the findings, it is concluded that the Education System is an organization that has strongly led to the formation of alienated teachers. Internal and external factors have played a role in creating such conditions. Non-participation, lack of support, and predominance of entrance exams to university as a goal of education and training (instead of creativity and learning life skills etc) have been the most important causes within the organization. The media and the multiplicity and interference of identity sources in society have been among the external factors effective in this job alienation.
 

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Main Subjects

References

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