Attitudes of elementary faculties and staffs toward selected aspects of career awareness education in Texas

Abstract

Purpose This study investigates, through a descriptive survey design, the attitudes of elementary principals, elementary teachers, and elementary counselors regarding career awareness education in the public elementary schools of Texas. The emphasis of this study is image assessment of career awareness concepts which have been initiated in Texas and throughout the nation since January 1971. Procedure A Likert-type Career Awareness Attitude Scale (CAAS) was developed to measure the attitudes of elementary personnel. Initial items for the CAAS were submitted to a Jury of professionals closely associated with career awareness education for validation of the items. A pilot study was conducted to investigate the reliability of a preliminary CAAS. Item perception feedback was also obtained through interviews with pilot participants. Randomly selected principals throughout Texas were solicited for study participation. Those choosing to participate listed the names of teachers for a randomly assigned grade level as well as elementary school counselors' names. One teacher and one counselor were randomly selected from the principal's list as study participants. Study data were tabulated from useable survey instruments returned by 143 principals, 134 teachers, and 70 counselors. Data analysis was accomplished through utilization of Program AOBSD routines TESTAT, ANSCHEFF, ANOVAR, and AVAR23. Study hypotheses were accepted or rejected at the .05 level of significance as determined by the F-test. ...