The attitudes of educators towards their own competences for conducting research into the practice of education and moral education

Abstract

Educators, as senior associates in schools, participate in all stages of education and moral education. Their tasks encompass designing a curriculum, improving of and researching into the process of education and moral education, working closely with teachers, parents, and students, monitoring and introducing innovations, and establishing contacts with local and wider community, which all points to a wide range of complex challenges they are confronted with. As early as over the course of their academic studies, future educators acquire skills they will find essential in an educational institution such as school. In our paper, we aim at examining the attitudes of educators towards their own competences for conducting a research into the practice of education and moral education as one of their professional fields. This research involves thirty-two educators already employed at elementary schools across the Republic of Srpska, with methods of theoretical analysis and of empirical nonexperimental research (survey) used. With regard to the techniques applied, there are survey technique and scaling, whereas, in terms of instruments, there are a questionnaire and a five-stage scale in which the answers offered refer to the evaluation of the items described. The analysis of the results shows that there is no statistically significant difference in the attitudes of educators towards their own competences for conducting a research into the practice of education and moral education with regard to their work experience and their academic affiliation (alma mater). In addition, the results point to the existing quality of the educators’ professional competences and the consistency of their respective academic institutions (affiliations) in providing the professional background in the aforementioned field.