The Reported Political Beliefs and Levels of Political Participation of Utah Educators

• Main Author: Theisen, Richard
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@USU 1973
• Subjects: Political Beliefs; Utah; Educators; Political Science; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/2140; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3143&context=etd

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the political beliefs and extent of political participati on of secondary and elementary teachers in the state of Utah. The relationship of sense of political efficacy and political participation for teachers as citizens and teachers as members of the teaching profession was investigated. The correlation of teacher as citizen political participation with teacher as professional political participation was also examined. Indexes measuring the teacher's sense of political efficacy, political participation, and extent to which they felt political behavior was professionally ethical were used. The data was gathered through personal interviews with a systematic random sample of Utah teachers. The hypothesized inconsistency between the political behavior of teachers as citizens and teachers as professionals was found to exist for those teachers who have the most limited definition of professionally ethical political behavior. The data also indicted that the professional political behavior of female teachers who have a conservative definition of professionally ethical political behavior cannot be predicted by examining their political activity as a citizen. Another conclusion was that sense of political efficacy is not a good predictor of the extent of political participation for teachers in Utah.