‘Teachers have to take the responsibility for everything’

Challenges and opportunities for Lithuanian teachers in the 21st century

Abstract

This article focuses on the challenges and difficulties faced by the Lithuanian teaching profession in primary schools. It asks how the post-Soviet educational reforms in Lithuania have affected teachers and what the gendered implications for the teaching profession are in Lithuania. Two theoretical approaches were used: the first is a critique of neoliberalism, and the second is a feminist perspective concerned with the feminisation of primary school teachers. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with female Lithuanian primary school teachers with 25–45 years of professional teaching experience. The data reveals an intensification of teachers’ jobs, increased accountability and performativity, marketisation of student school placements, and job precariousness. Also, the study findings imply that low teachers’ salaries reduce the attractiveness of the teaching profession, yet the interviewees also found their jobs meaningful. The findings also reveal the perception of primary school teaching in Lithuania as a women’s occupation due to deeply engrained gender norms. The study, therefore, suggests that the neoliberal turn in education has harmed the Lithuanian teaching profession, undermining the role of teachers as professionals. The results underline a need to reconsider widely spread neoliberal educational developments for teachers to gain a greater sense of professional independence.