TEACHER COMMITMENT IN PROMOTING EDUCATION: THE NEED OF THE HOUR

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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 teacher’s 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
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.

1
Principal-in-charge, St.Joseph College of Education, Kadamboduvalvu, Nanguneri-
627108. E-mail: arullawrence@gmail.com
2
Asst. Professor of History, St.Joseph College of Education, Kadamboduvalvu,
Nanguneri-627108.

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 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 teacher’s 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 teacher’s 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 teacher’s perceived obligation to remain the school or

stay because of the feelings of obligation. The individual commits to and remains with

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 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 one’s 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).

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 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
school’s 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.

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 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.
Such a self-introspection would not only give them opportunity for self-
improvement 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

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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.

Reference

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