COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ SATISFACTION WITH THE PROFESSION IN BULGARIA AND MACEDONIA

The satisfaction in a profession is one of the key elements for productivity, quality working results but its also important from a personal point of view in the sense of motivation for work and persistence in overcoming difficulties. Satisfaction in the teaching profession is also very important for the overall quality of the educational process and its issue that should not be neglected. Therefore, considering many educational reforms that are occurring, our particular interest was focused on exploring the satisfaction of being a teacher in the context of primary school teachers in Bulgaria and Macedonia. Based on this, this study aims to examine primary school teachers’ satisfaction with their professional activity. The subject of study are 232 Bulgarian and 123 Macedonian primary school teachers who teach different school subjects. A modified questionnaire, with 22 items related to the satisfaction with the teaching profession, is applied. Obtained data were analyzed using factor analysis, analysis of variance and non-parametric Mann-Whitney test. The results show that the items with the highest values for the primary school teachers’ satisfaction in both countries are: the duration of holidays, the professional relations with colleagues, and the professional relations with the school management. There are no significant differences between Bulgarian and Macedonian primary school teachers in terms of satisfaction with most of the factors related to their professional activity