Social Behavior of Schoolteachers of Latvia and Russia in the Structure of Teacher Professional Identity

Abstract The article presents the results of the international study of the professional identity of schoolteachers of Russia and Latvia. In the study, the six component model of the content of the teacher professional identity (TPI) is used. According to this model, in 2017, the questionnaire “School Teacher Professional Identity” was created and international survey organized, in which 437 schoolteachers from Latvia and the Smolensk region of Russia participated. The aim of this article is to analyze the data of the two national samples for the 6th component of TPI: “Professionally Determined Social Behavior”. This behavior is not connected with the implementation of direct professional duties, but corresponds to the philosophy of the profession: taking up the mission of educating community, active involvement in social life, participation in formulation and solution of social problems having pedagogical aspects and unselfish professional help to those who need it. To process the data, statistical methods were used. On the whole, items of the component received relatively high scores in both national samples. Certain differences in the data of Latvian and Russian teachers as well as urban and rural subgroups of both countries are observed. High dispersion of data shown in this component indicates that the professionally determined social behavior is the most acute and controversial aspect of TPI; therefore, the elaboration of optimal ways and tools to strengthen TPI should be based on an in-depth study of social behavior of schoolteachers.