Professional Values and School Context Representations: A Study with Three Groups of School Teachers

The relationship between professional self-concept, students, and school representations and professional value orientations was investigated among 137 kindergarten, primary, and secondary teachers. Measures were Semantic Differentials for Professional Self-concept, the Students, and the School (De Caroli & Sagone, 2010) and Inventory of Professional Values (Boerchi & Castelli, 2000). As a result, kindergarten teachers judged as more important the values of relationship, remuneration, self-improvement, mobility, variety, and physical activity than the other teachers; secondary teachers valued less positively the representation of their own students and professional self-concept than the other teachers. Positive representation of students influenced the importance attributed to almost all professional value orientations by teachers.