The professional identity of primary and secondary school music teachers in Greece

The particular dissertation concerns the profile delineation of Primary and Secondary School Music Teachers in Greece, as well as the determination of their professional identity. The first part initially presents in a concise way the teaching profession and in particular the profession of the teacher of Music. Then, the meaning of professional identity is defined and various aspects of this identity are presented. Subsequently, the status of Music as a school subject is pointed out, as well as the prestige of the Music Teacher in general education schools and especially in Music Schools. Special mention is made to the institution of Music Schools. Among other things, the categories of Music teachers employed in Music Schools are recorded, as well as their occupational status quo, the specific problems which they face in education practice juxtaposed to the other Music Teachers of General Educational Schools. In the second part, the empirical research is presented in detail, which aims at the determination of the term 'professional identity of the Music teachers'. The extensive reference to their qualifications, and the ways that training programs contribute to their further development, is followed by the opinions of Music Teachers-which were sought from questionnaires regarding the occupational status quo, and foremost the education process and the role of the subject of music in contemporary Greek education. The methodology of research is the quantitative mainly investigation and inquiring tool the questionnaire, that was drawn specifically for the present research. The results showed that the various specialities of teachers of music build their professional identity according to their background of study (conservatoires, Universities, Technological Institutes), their experience and the way that feels that they are evaluated by the stakeholders of educational process, and also by their himself. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu