Attitudes of pre-service music teachers towards the teaching profession in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the attitudes of pre-service music teachers towards the music teaching profession in terms of diverse variables. Students who enrolled in music teaching department were examined in respect to their different attitudes towards the teaching profession, their genders, grade levels and willingness to enroll in the department, the high schools they graduated from, why they chose music teaching profession and whether another family member is present in the teaching profession.  The scanning model was used in the study.  The sampling consisted of 305 students who enrolled at the music education department at four different universities in Turkey during the spring semester of 2012 - 2013 academic year.  Attitude Scale towards Teaching Profession, developed by Ustuner (2006), was used as the data collection tool. The data obtained were analyzed through the Mann Whitney U Test and the Kruskal Wallis H test with a Bonferroni correction. No statistical difference was observed between the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards the teaching profession and their genders, the type of high schools they graduated from or the presence of a family member in the teaching profession. However, statistically significant differences were found between pre-service teachers' grade levels, willingness to enroll in the music education department, reasons for choosing teaching profession and their attitudes towards the profession.   Key words: Music education, attitude, teaching profession.