Continuity of mythologized representations of future and practical teachers
Authors: Tyunnikov Yurii , Maznichenko Marina , Afanasyeva Tatyana 
Published: April 2019

The article presents the theoretical foundations and results of an experimental study of the peculiarities of the professional consciousness of teachers (future and already working), expressed in their ideas (including mythologized ones) about teaching, the teacher and students as its subjects, and in many respects determining the effectiveness their professional activities. The dynamics and continuity of such ideas at different stages of the professional path are revealed.

The purpose of the study – the study of the professional consciousness of teachers, including its mythological component. The purpose of the article is to present the results of psychologic-based methods and methods of research of mythologized ideas of future and practicing teachers as part of their professional consciousness.

The theoretical foundations of the study are psycholinguistic theories, revealing the peculiarities of speech production at the textual and pretext levels; psychological theories and empirical studies of the mythological component of the personality consciousness; studies of the teacher’s professional consciousness; the main provisions of pedagogical mythological studies.

The results of the empirical research have shown that in the professional consciousness of both practicing teachers and future teachers there are mythologized ideas about the pedagogical reality (about yourself, the profession, students, the pedagogical process, parents, etc.). However, the content (set) and the degree of prevalence of such ideas among students and practicing teachers are different. More similarities are observed among graduate students and practicing teachers: they are characterized by the idealization of the teacher’s image (“A good teacher hides his real feelings from schoolchildren”, “A good teacher answers any question”), an exaggeration of the significance of the methodology (“omnipotent”). Mythological constructs of first-year students and practicing teachers differ significantly: first-year students are characterized by negative perceptions of the profession (“Teacher’s work is continuous hassle, martyrdom”), students (“Modern children don’t want to learn”), practically not occurring in practicing educators and much less common in graduate students.

The results obtained allow us to understand how scientific and pedagogical knowledge is comprehended by a teacher, why certain scientific theories do not find practical application, what else, in addition to scientific knowledge, is the teacher guided, designing pedagogical interaction, why he chooses certain strategies of pedagogical education? whether strategies based on extra-scientific knowledge or on a complex of scientific and extra-scientific knowledge can be effective, how and why attitudes to future pedagogical reality, beginners and Mature teachers, like the teacher himself or the teacher of a higher educational institution, mentor, or methodologist can strengthen the constructive and reduce the destructive influence of myths on the teacher’s professional consciousness.