Beginning Teacher Education Students' Attitude towards their Future Profession: The Case of Dilla College of Teacher Education and Health Sciences

Abstract

The present study was conducted on 138 freshman degree
students in the Faculty of Teacher Education, Dilla College of Teacher
Education and Health Sciences (DCTEHS). The aim was to find out whether
or not trainee teachers were initially committed to teaching (or actually
preferred teaching to other professions) and their attitudes towards the
teaching profession. The data were collected using an attitude scale
developed by the investigators and a survey questionnaire. The major
statistical techniques employed were the non-parametric analogue of
Friedman's 2-way ANOVA by ranks and the logistic regression analysis.
The results revealed that 74.6% of the respondents do not have initial
commitment to teaching. The outstanding reasons for these were,
perceived low social status accorded to teachers, absence of economic
incentives, low chance for career advancement, and low base salary.
Further, high achievers in ESLCE seem to show low inclination to the
teaching profession, and the likelihood of initial commitment to teaching was
found to be relatively higher among those with comparatively low ESLCE
GPA. Implications of the findings to redress the problem of teacher
education in Ethiopia were also discussed in this paper