ABSTRACT
Role problems are closely connected with problems of status. Many teachers today are in difficulties not because they occupy statuses which are too low, but which are too high. Apart from involuntary migration by decree, the migration of teachers to new statuses has been occurring by a kind of suction as areas of educational activity expand and draw incumbents into the new role positions available. Status incongruence is disturbing because people expect certain linkages between status factors. Changes in the nature and prestige of academic subjects are also presenting teachers with problems of status and role. Vocational education, which demands expertness in the application of tried and tested techniques, is still seen by many as the realm of the trainer or instructor; ‘liberal education’, which the grammar schools and universities claim to provide, as the realm of the teacher and educator. This is a distinction of status as well as of role: ‘training’-and ‘instructing’ carry quite clear derogatory implications.
