Pedagogo bendravimo kompetencijos pristatymas Lietuvos interneto žiniasklaidoje

Abstract

The article discusses representation of the communicative competence of an educator in online media as one of the aspects analysed in the research commissioned by the Education Development Centre and conducted in 2018. Information concerning educators that appears in the media has an impact on the society, reinforcing or changing public attitudes that are shaped by a number of factors. Social and technological changes establish higher standards for the system of education, which in turn sets higher requirements for and expectations towards educators. The communicative competence is one of the main features of the professional image of an educator; however, it is important to understand that the teacher empowerment index is proportional not only to the communicative competence of an educator but also to the attitudes towards teachers maintained in the society. Media discourse was chosen to reveal how educators are presented to the public and attitudes towards them are shaped in the society with the help of online media. The following major national news websites were selected to achieve the aim of the research, which was to summarise representation of the communicative competence of an educator in the Lithuanian online media: www.delfi.lt; www.15min.lt; www.lrytas.lt; www.diena.lt. Data were processed with ATLAS.ti software, and data analysis was carried out using the qualitative research method of thematic analysis. The research was conducted in accordance with the basic principles of qualitative research ethics. The article presents the following conclusions: a) the analysis of online media publications showed that articles concerning educators create a certain image of an educator (some articles discuss the problems related to violations of pedagogical ethics, unlawful actions of educators, etc.; others focus on the importance of pedagogical work, challenges, professionalism, etc.); b) the society’s attitudes towards educators and their work are rather negative than positive.