After World War II, the idea of education and teaching profession changedcompletely in Japan. The old concepts were replaced by the new ones, chieflyof professionalism and unionism.
The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes toward ‘professionalism’ which the present-day teachers assumes. Our questionnaires were sent to 1, 085teachers of senior and junior schools and primary schools in three prefectures.Our aim of this questioning was to explore the three aspects which we thoughtto be the most important as the elements of the profession. They are (I) autonomy in teachers' instructional activities, (II) autonomy of the professionalorganization, and (III) professional ethics and belief. We received 736 auswersfrom the teachers. And as a whole, (I) showed the most remarkable result and (II) the least.
Teachers are discreet enough to think it important to select textbooks freelyand adopt his own teaching methods, but they considerably allow for the role oftheir principals. There are few who think that the professional organizationshould participate in the decison of the criteria of the teacher's certificate. Mostteachers assume that they are performing an essential function of the society, butnot many regard the belief in public service as of importance.
There is a close relation between attributes of teachers and (I) and (II). Itis the teachers lower in rank-members of Japan Teachers Union (JTU) and of itsfriendly organizations, graduates of national or municipal universities or collges, and teachers from twenty to thirty-nine years of age-who constantly demand theirprofessional autonomy; whereas it is the head teachers and those next to them inrank-members of anti-JTU associations, graduates of normal schools, and teachersover fifty years of age-who are committed to (III). On the whole, their professionalconsciousness is inferior to that of the former.
And we proceed to examine the relation between the conception of professionand morality, for it functions as a standard of demmand in teaching. These analysis give the result that the morality of the teacher more attached to professionalismis lower than that of those less attached.
