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The present paper focuses on teacher’s role in social justice and explores how teachers perceive and react upon diversity and inequality in their classrooms. Through a literature review, we aimed to answer three research questions: 1) what are diversity awareness and critical consciousness in education; 2) why are diversity awareness and critical consciousness important; and 3) how can diversity awareness and critical consciousness be supported in teachers. The literature review has revealed that most papers on teachers’ diversity awareness and critical consciousness have been published within the last few years and that the importance of the two concepts has been recognized for a wide range of educators. There seems to be a growing interest in this topic due to the increase of the diversity in classrooms and the recognition of the teachers’ role in addressing diversity and inequality. However, large-scale studies would be a needed contribution to the field, as most of the existing studies are small-scale. Based on this review, we argue that both diversity awareness and critical consciousness need to be supported through preservice and in-service teacher professional development programs, if we are to make education systems more inclusive for all.

Teacher empathy is an essential part of teacher professional role, related to various student outcomes. Research have shown that women are more empathetic than men. However, when personality traits or gender roles are included into regression models, gender no longer predicts empathy. Research have pointed to agreeableness and expressiveness as the strongest correlates of empathy among personality traits and gender roles respectively, but these determinants of empathy are still rarely studied in teachers. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the role of agreeableness and expressiveness in the relationship between gender and empathy on a sample of preservice subject teachers. Two serial mediation models with gender as a predictor, agreeableness and expressiveness as mediators, and empathic concern and perspective taking as criterion variables were tested. Results showed that agreeableness and expressiveness mediated the relationship between gender and empathy. Significant serial mediation effects showed that female preservice teachers reported greater agreeableness, which had a positive effect on expressiveness, which then had a positive effect on empathic concern and perspective taking. Our study indicates that a differentiated approach to empathy training should be used with different groups of preservice teachers, particularly with those who report lower agreeableness and expressiveness. Nastavnička empatija važan je dio profesionalne uloge nastavnika i povezana je s brojnim ishodima kod učenika. Istraživanja pokazuju da su žene empatičnije od muškaraca, ali rod prestaje biti prediktorom empatije nakon što se u regresijske modele uključe osobine ličnosti ili rodne uloge. Ugodnost i ekspresivnost pokazale su se najsnažnijim korelatima empatije među osobinama ličnosti odnosno rodnim ulogama, no te su determinante empatije još uvijek rijetko istražene kod nastavnika/ca. Stoga je cilj ovog istraživanja ispitati ulogu ugodnosti i ekspresivnosti u odnosu između roda i empatije na uzorku studenata/tica nastavničkog smjera različitih fakulteta. Testirana su dva serijalna medijacijska modela s rodom kao prediktorom, ugodnošću i ekspresivnošću kao medijatorima te aspektima empatije kao kriterijskim varijablama. Rezultati su potvrdili medijacijsku ulogu ugodnosti i ekspresivnosti u odnosu između roda i empatije. Značajni učinci serijalne medijacije pokazali su da su buduće nastavnice iskazale veću ugodnost što je imalo pozitivan učinak na ekspresivnost, a to je potom imalo pozitivan učinak na empatičnu brigu i zauzimanje tuđe perspektive. Rezultati istraživanja ukazuju na potrebu za diferenciranim pristupom treninzima empatije s različitim skupinama budućih nastavnika/ca, posebno s onima koji imaju manje izraženu ugodnost i ekspresivnost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revija za Sociologiju is the property of Revija za Sociologiju and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of CEPS Journal is the property of University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The motivation, skills and professional identity of future teachers develop during their initial teacher education. The aim of this research is to assess the differences between first-year and fifth-year student teachers on a number of personality and motivational variables that are indicative of their approaches to learning, using a cross-sectional design. The participants were 217 first-year and 109 fifth-year student teachers from three Croatian universities. The questionnaire measured personality dispositions, self-descriptions, achievement goals, motivation, learning strategies and perceived autonomy support in learning. The results showed that final-year student teachers displayed more conscientiousness and self-efficacy, and less avoidant goal orientations, extrinsic motivation and surface learning compared to first-year student teachers, indicating final-year students’ more adaptive and proactive approach to learning. The observed differences could be a result of maturation processes and/or the effects of teacher studies that support the development of more adaptive patterns of learning and self-beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The presented research set in a Croatian context explores beliefs about parental/maternity leave and factors explaining these beliefs. The data was gathered on a nationally representative sample of people living in Croatia (N=1000). Participants were asked questions about their beliefs towards parental leave take-up by the mother and the father, their socio-demographic data, attendance of religious services, partners' income disparity and gender- role beliefs. The results show that around 49% of both men and women believe that it is solely the mother's responsibility to use the entire leave, an additional 27% believe that the father should take some part of the leave, and around 24% believe that parents should share the leave equally. Men and women who support more equally shared leave take-up attend religious services less often and hold more egalitarian beliefs about gender division of labour, but do not differ in partners' income disparity. These results imply that gender ideology theory is more applicable in the explanation of beliefs about the gender division of parental leave compared to time-allocation theory. Results of the multinomial logistic regressions show that the strongest predictor of the belief about leave take-up is the gender-role belief. The less the participants believe that the gender division of labour should be traditionally divided, the more likely they are to support equally shared leave between parents. The implication of these findings is that shifts towards supporting gender egalitarian leave take-up will most likely not occur until the attitudes toward gender roles become more egalitarian in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current public debates in Croatia brought the issues o f gay and lesbian civil rights to the forefront o f scientific interest. So far, Croatian researches were mostly interested in the determinants o f general attitudes towards gays and lesbians, while research on attitudes toward their civil rights remained neglected. Our study aimed to investigate student attitudes toward gay and lesbian civil rights, which is especially interesting because the study was conducted in the moment when the Life Partnership Act for the Persons o f the Same Sex, which is now in force, was being prepared, in the study also deals with gender differences in the support o f gay and lesbian civil rights. The determinants o f attitudes toward gay and lesbian civil rights - gender, religiosity, social contact with gays and lesbians, courses on the topic o f homosexuality and modern prejudice toward homosexual persons were also analysed. A total o f 1551 heterosexual students from the University o f Zagreb, University o f Rijeka, University o f Split and University o f Osijek participated in the study. We used Attitudes toward gay/lesbian civil rights scale, Modern prejudice toward homosexual persons scale and we asked participants about their contact with gays/lesbians, religiosity, courses on the topic o f homosexuality at the university and their interest in gay and lesbian issues. Students held the most favourable attitudes toward gay and lesbian employment rights and the right to visit their partner in the hospital. They supported gay and lesbian marriage, adoption and in vitro fertilization to a lesser extent. Women supported all the gay and lesbian rights more than men. After controlling for their interest in gay and lesbian issues, women, particularly those with less prejudice toward homosexual persons, those who are less religious and who have more contact with gays and lesbians gave more support to gay and lesbian civil rights. Our findings are mostly expected, and they have clear practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the research results on the effects that gender and socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics have on pupils' achievement in mathematics and secondary school choice. The research was conceptually connected to Bourdieu (1977) and carried out on a sample of 693 elementary school pupils from Zagreb and the surrounding Zagreb County. The results have shown that girls have higher school grades in mathematics than boys, and are more likely to choose grammar schools than vocational schools with a large number of math lessons (technical schools). Pupils from families with higher socio-economic and socio-cultural status achieve better grades and more often choose schools with a large number of math lessons. Gender, parents 'higher level of education, owning classical literature and the Internet access in one's home proved to be the strongest predictors of higher mathematics achievement. As for the choice of schools, the choice of grammar school was primarily explained by cultural resources of the family, while the choice of technical school was explained by pupils 'gender. These findings are consistent with the results of similar research studies in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presents results founded upon the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice scale validation and the relations between personality traits and motivation for teaching in Croatia. A sample of 374 first-year preservice teachers from three universities participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis of the items comprising the Croatian version of the FIT-Choice scale provided support for its construct validity following the omission of six items with low factor loadings. Personality dimensions of the five-factor model provided a set of theoretically meaningful relations with the specific motivational factors determining the choice of teaching profession. In line with previous studies, our results showed that personality traits better predicted intrinsic motivation compared to extrinsic motivation. Two interpersonal dimensions, extraversion and agreeableness, were significant predictors of intrinsic career value, but also of satisfaction with the choice of this profession. Extraversion also predicted ability, whereas agreeableness demonstrated positive relations with social utility value motivations for a teaching career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on motivation for teaching as a career choice are still relatively rare and lacking clear theoretical framework based on recent theories of motivation and career choice. The aim of this research was to empirically test the model of influences on the choice of teaching as a career based on expectancy-value theory of motivation (Eccles, 2005) in Croatian educational context and to validate the Croatian version of the FIT-Choice Questionnaire. The questionnaire, originally designed in Australia (Richardson & Watt, 2006), assesses a variety of factors playing the role in choosing teaching as a career. The sample consisted of 188 students from teaching faculties at the universities in Zagreb and Rijeka. Factor structure of the Croatian version of FIT-Choice Questionnaire provided a good replication of the original factor structure of the scales, given a relatively large number of factors underlying original scales and substantial differences in Croatian and Australian educational context, pre-service teacher education and status of teaching profession. The obtained results therefore provided a support for the construct validity of the FIT-Choice Questionnaire and for the adequacy of the model of influences on the choice of teaching as a career (Richardson & Watt 2006) as a conceptual framework for interpreting the motivation for teaching profession in the Croatian educational context. The principal motives for career choice of our student teachers were the opportunity to work with children, social contribution and perceived teaching ability, while personal values as job security and time for family were perceived as less important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociology & Space / Sociologija i Prostor is the property of Institut za drustvena istrazivanja u Zagrebu (Institute for Social Research of Zagreb) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of early experience of gender discrimination on the perception of gender inequality and related behavior later in life. According to social learning theories, individuals who experienced unequal treatment in their family of origin should internalize traditional gender roles. On the other hand, based on cognitive theories, we would expect these persons, because of their strong negative experience of injustice, to become more sensitive to issues of gender inequality and to develop egalitarian attitudes towards gender roles. A national representative sample of 1363 participants reported on their experiences of gender discrimination within their family of origin, their perception of gender inequality in Croatian society, attitudes towards gender roles, hostile sexism, their tendency to discriminate based on gender, and their willingness to engage in affirmative actions aimed to reduce gender inequality in Croatian society. Results show that 50% of women and one third of men were exposed to some form of unequal treatment in their family, both by their mothers and fathers. Women who experienced gender discrimination perceive more gender inequality in Croatian society today than those who did not have this experience. Also, both men and women who experienced gender discrimination have more egalitarian attitudes toward gender roles and are more willing to engage in affirmative actions aimed to reduce gender inequality. However, there were no differences in hostile sexism and the tendency to discriminate based on gender. Findings confirm the hypothesis about the effect of early negative experience on greater awareness of gender issues. At the same time they show that even today there is a great influence of traditional gender norms in Croatian culture, which can be particularly seen in the participants' tendency to discriminate others based on gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]