Specialised Professional Training Makes a Difference! The Importance and Prestige of Typical Duties in All-Day Schools from the Perspective of Teachers, Leisure Educators, Principals and Coordinators of Extended Education

Abstract

In Austria there is a specialised education (60 ECTS) for “leisure educators”, who are professionals working in all-day schools in the field of extended education but who are not teachers. Despite the existence of leisure educators, also teachers are often tasked with supervising extended education settings like lunchtime, extra-curricular activities and uncommitted free time in all-day schools in Austria. This paper aims to illustrate the difference of prestige that comes with different fields of duty in extended education and the implications of that difference. The paper is based on a quantitative study carried out in all-day schools in Vienna. It looks at the prestige of typical professional duties in all-day schools and at the importance attached to these duties by different professional groups. Leisure educators assign a higher importance to non-formal activities than teachers or other professional groups do. Yet, these activities represent relevant fields of duty in respect of training children and adolescents in 21st century skills. Hence the authors propose to address typical extended education duties in teacher education to enable all-day school professional teams to work on eye-level and efficiently.