PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS’ VOICES TOWARD

TEACHING PROFESSION AT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN JAMBI

Written by:

YOLANDA DEMIZA

P2A419030

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
MAGISTER PROGRAM
UNIVERSITY OF JAMBI
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Teaching is a great profession for some people. Teachers who enjoyed with their

teaching are the happiest teacher. Work and worth of teachers have brought name and fame

to nations. Teachers have brought laureates to nations. The profession of a teacher has never

been so challenging and demanding as it has become now (UNESCO, 2009). Teachers aim

to increase students’ ability have to observe and find the solution of solving problems in

classroom, appropriate strategies, assessment, and instructional approaches that suitable for

them to use. Thus, a teacher should know what will they teach, for whom they will teach, and

the condition of they teach. It will influence the professional of a teacher in teaching. There

are some steps that a teacher to be point as a professional teacher. One of them is to be pre-

service teacher in the beginning of teaching.

Similarly, Rena (2008) addressed that some researchers suggest that pre-service teacher

education often provides the first step in the professional development of teachers. It means

that the first step to be a professional teacher is to be a pre-service teacher in practical

teaching. The real teachers and pre-service teachers are similarly, it aims to teach, transfers

the knowledge to students, changes students’ behavior and attitudes to be better. The

differences are about the professional, time, and experiences. Pre-service teachers also have

to know about organizing and presenting the material a way that makes it accessible and

enjoyable for the students.  They must be able to make decisions about choosing materials,

strategies, instructional approaches, and assessment. In addition, pre-service teachers must

possess general competencies in the areas of classroom management and discipline.

 However, they have to acquire some skills in period to be pre-service teachers. In the

future, not all of the pre-service teachers are interested in being a teacher. It is similarly with

the researcher’s experience about teaching at one junior high school in Jambi city. The

researcher is not interested in teaching before have done practice teaching in a school. After

having done practical teaching as a pre-service teacher at one Junior high school in Jambi

city, the researcher is so interested in teaching and will choose teaching profession as her

career. In contrast with the small conversations between the researcher and her senior in

English study program in Jambi University. When the researcher asked her senior about

teaching profession as they career after graduate from English study program, the dominance

answer is “no”.

Additionally, Lin et al. (2012) stated that perceptions about teaching as profession consist

of four construct categorized within higher order constructs of ‘task demand” and “task

return”. “Task demand” focuses on pre-service teachers’ perceptions about whether teaching

is a highly expect career that demands specialized load and hard work. “Task return” covers

what a teacher can be rewarded with by choosing teaching as career, including social status

and salary.

Lortie (1975) in Lin et al. (2012) explained that teaching in the US is traditionally with

low social status and low pay that requires less specialized knowledge and expertise when

compared to other professions such as law or medicine. Morris, William (2000) stated that in

Indonesia the problem of status was closely associated with the low level of pays. It means

that the problem of teachers in Indonesia come from “Task return”. How about the “Task

Demand” and social status?

Looking at the problem in Indonesia and also based on the researcher’s experience, the

researcher is interested in emphasizing and finding the perception of English pre-service

teachers at public universities at the researcher site towards teaching profession, it will look
from “task return and task demand”. The purpose of this study is to reveal the perception

from English pre-service teachers at public universities in Jambi towards teaching

profession.

1.2 Purpose of the Study

Based on the researcher’s experience, not all of pre-service English teachers that have

done practical teaching choose teaching profession as their career. The researcher has done

small conversations between the researcher and her senior in English study program in

Jambi University. When the researcher asked her seniors about teaching profession as they

career after graduate from English study program. The dominance answer is no. Therefore,

the researcher is interested in describing and finding the perception of pre-service English

teachers at public universities in Jambi towards teaching profession. The purpose of this

study is to know and describe the perception from pre-service English teachers at public

universities in Jambi towards teaching profession.

1.3 Research Questions

To achieve the purpose of this study, the following research questions will guide the

study:

1. How are the perceptions of pre-service English teachers towards

teaching profession at public universities in Jambi after involving

practical teaching?

2. How t is the prominent perception of pre-service English teachers

towards teaching profession at public universities in Jambi?

 3. Why pre service English teachers are not choosing teaching

profession as their carreer ?

1.4 Limitation of the Study

This study has some limitations. First, this study focused to know and describe the

perception from pre-service English teachers at one public university in Jambi towards

teaching profession. Second, this study focused on one batch of English students. They were

2018 English Education study students. They were recent English Pre-Service Teachers from

states university in Jambi. So, participant’s perception and the prominent perception toward

teaching profession represented limitations. Third, this study will use obsevation, a

questionnaire as the data collection method, and interview to explore the perceptions from

pre-service English teachers at one public university in Jambi towards teaching profession.

Finally, the findings of this study are limited to and based upon the analysis of data obtained

from the questionnaire and interview.