The role of teachers in higher education is crucial in determining quality. Tight recognizes five key academic roles of teachers: teaching, researching, managing, writing and networking. To what degree university teachers perform these roles, both in campus and social settings, indicates strongly the level of educational excellence offered by that particular university. Not surprisingly, universities invest reasonably strong on their teaching staff quality. In this sense, academics become the core personnel in providing education and training services. Consequently, the teachers are highly respected in academic setting. In many Asian societies respect for teachers are extended beyond the five key academic roles. Within Indonesian society, teachers are perceived as knowledgeable, prudent as well as compassionate. These social values attached to teachers bring along with them additional role demands, such as: parental roles, tutor, or sometimes even friends or facilitators. Accordingly, becoming teachers lead to the complexity of managing multiple roles.
Interestingly, despite the unanimous agreement of the importance of teachers’ role in higher education services, studies including teacher’s perspectives on their roles are rare to find in Indonesia. It is commonly understood that to conduct an opinion survey of teachers on their jobs is extremely difficult and it becomes a highly sensitive matter, not only in Indonesia but also elsewhere. However, such a study is very important and essential for teaching improvements.
This study explores meanings attached by the teaching staff to their teacher roles. This reflective self- portrayal is very important since it influences the teachers’ academic performances, their relationship with students as well as with their co-workers. A semi-structured interview is applied to twenty lecturers from the Faculty of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University are interviewed (eleven full-time teachers and nine part-time teachers). The subjects also cover the managerial and non-managerial staff members. The data is analyzed qualitatively using content analysis technique. The teachers’ self-portrayal is presented by focusing on three aspects: subjective meanings on being teachers, motivational factors to become teachers and psychosocial factors of teacher performances. Based on the result, this study suggested ideas for further research as well as for practical purposes. |