Proceedings of ‏The 3rd International Conference on Research in Education, Teaching and Learning

Year: 2020

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Attitude to Authority and Digital Competences of Bulgarian Preschool Teacher’s

Nadezhda Angelova Kaloyanova

ABSTRACT: 

The thesis of this study is based on the assumption that the authority of the teacher manifests as a specific status or professional role and should be internalized in his overall professional profile. This type authority is defined “a formal authority” and is strongly influenced by the requirements of the educational environment (social aspect) and the specific professional competences of the teacher (individual aspect). The attitude of the teachers towards they own authority, which implements the set of professional roles and competences, is a prerequisite for the formation and manifestation of an adequate professional model, which directly influences the quality and culture of the educational environment. In this study attitudes towards teachers’ own authority are examined in relation to one of the teacher’s current professional competencies – the digital competence. Тhe study uses the concept of liberalism – conservatism to explain the nature of the social manifestation and experiencing of teacher’s own authority in terms of his status-role model, defined as a liberal authority or as a conservative authority. The research is performed with two scales, which are separately developed sets of statements. The first scale – „Attitude to Authority” – is an adapted and integrative version of the established standardized „Attitude to Authority Scale“ (Ray, 1971) and GAIAS (Rigby, 1982). The second scale, “Digital Competence”, was developed as an integrative scale to explore teachers’ attitudes towards digitalization of education and to study specific skills involved in digital competence. The both Scale are nominal (Likert) type. Research involve 202 Bulgarian preschool teachers. The results are analysed in three stages: Evaluation of the Scales internal consistency; Factor Analyse and Correlation Analyses. The general conclusion of the study is, that the teachers demonstrate a high degree of digital competence, which is combined with moderate, still tending (in some essential aspects) to conservative authority. That calls into question the effective internalization of this key competence in the professional model of respondents.

Keywords: attitude to authority, digital competences, preschool teachers, professional roles.