Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study the problems concerning working conditions of social studies teachers at the secondary education level in the government and private schools throughout the country, and to compare the problems concerning working conditions of social studies teachers in central region and provincial region, of male and female social studies teachers, and of social studies teachers with different amount of working experience. A sample of 615 social studies teachers from both government and private secondary schools .throughout the country was drawn out by stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire consisting of checklist, rating scale and open - ended items was constructed by the researcher. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by means of percentage , arithmetic mean, standard deviation and t - test. The findings of this study were as follows ; 1. The problems that social studies teachers considered to be obstacles in their job were those concerning personal matter (economics, health and etc.), curriculum , students, instruction , the incrementation of knowledge and experience, work load, administrators, working system within the school, colleagues , school environment, and welfare and Security of the profession. 2.The problems that social studies teachers considered to be the main obstacles in their job were ; 2.1 Some topics in the new curriculum were too difficult, and some were too long to be covered within the available time allotted. 2.2 Administrators did not recognize the importance of social studies subject. 2.3 Students did not regard social studies as an important subject. They did not give proper attention to study it. In addition, the lack of discussion skills and the ability to use learning resources on the part of students also hampered the teaching and learning situations. 2.4 Schools lacked budget, teachers' manuals, texts end materials in implementing learning and teaching social studies. 2.5 Most social studies teachers lacked knowledge and skills on innovative teaching methods. They also did not have appropriate academic freedom. 3. In general, problems confronting social studies teachers in central region and those in provincial region were comparatively not significantly different. Only problems concerning inconvenience of traveling to and from work everyday , time available for lesson planning, and bad environment of the school that central region teachers considered to be serious while those concerning financial difficulties , inappropriateness of curriculum as to class level and contemporary events, students' lack of skill for critical discussion, scarcity of texts and supplementary readings, inadequacy of library services, too much teaching load , extra duties in addition to classroom teaching, and lack of time for correcting exercises and reading to further one's .knowledge were considered to be serious by provincial region teachers. 4. In general , problems confronting male and female social studies teachers were comparatively not significantly different. Only problems concerning financial difficulties , teaching load, extra responsibilities, and not enough time to correct students' exercises that male teachers considered to be serious while a problem concerning the lack of knowledge and skill for production of teaching materials was considered to be serious by female teachers. 5. In general , problems confronting social studies teachers with more working experienced, (having 5 or more years of working experiences) and those with less working experiences (having less than 5 years of working experiences) were comparatively not significantly different. Only problems concerning lack of time for lesson planning, exercise correcting and reading to further one' knowledge , and more negative attitude toward social studies teaching that more experienced teachers considered to be serious while those concerning financial difficulties, inappropriateness of content for class level, proper teaching techniques, lack of coordination among staff members, improper division of responsibility, and lack of brainstorming before any decision was made were considered to be serious by less experienced teachers.