Professional self-identification and well-being of teachers in the context of the ongoing educational reforms

The article is devoted to issues of education, in particular, its intra-institutional aspects such as the social status of teachers as one of the most important socio-professional groups of Russian employees, their professional well-being, the prestige and social significance of the profession, the motives of denial and, on the contrary, attractiveness of teaching. The analysis is based on the results of three waves of sociological monitoring of the economic situation and social well-being of school teachers in the Vologda Oblast, conducted by the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science “Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences” in 2011, 2015, and 2017 in the Vologda Oblast. The author also used sociological data from VTsIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center) and FOM (Public Opinion Foundation) on the social prestige of the teaching profession. The purpose for the research is to analyze the opinions of the teaching community in the region and the country about the results of education reforms and assessment of the capacity of teaching profession in addressing the issue of forming a new quality of human capital. The study demonstrates that in 1990-s, the period of active reforms in the country, and in the 2000-s, with the modernization and reformation of the education system, there was a decline in the social status of the teaching profession. Data of monitoring of teachers' social well-being indicate that the issue has become a little less acute as a result of measures to increase the wages of this category of workers, initiated by the President and the Government of the Russian Federation. The study revealed that the status in both external (public respect) and internal (position of a professional group) terms remains low, but has a positive trend. The article analyzes the socio-demographic characteristics of teachers' potential (age, population), subjective factors related to professional activity (social activity, loyalty to profession, vocation) and evaluation of its prospects (career aspirations, profession's attractiveness). The scientific importance of the study lies in the analysis of the phenomenon of “vocation” in teaching, determinants of loyalty to the selected profession. The socio-professional group of Russian teachers demonstrates a higher number of people working according to their calling than in average among the employed population. This conclusion is consistent with similar results from national and international studies. This study and its results can be useful for the development and adjustment of strategic measures to develop the regional system of education, the methodological tools can serve as a framework for the formation of unified the research methodology for education economics, in particular, the social status of Russian teachers.