A STUDY OF PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENT OF TEACHER EDUCATORS IN RELATION TO LOCALITY, GENDER AND STREAMS OF STUDY IN THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL

The study examined professional commitment among teacher educators. The present study was conducted on a sample of 240 teacher educators in the state of West Bengal. Data was collected with the help of Professional Commitment Scale for Teacher educators developed by Vishal Sood (2014). The descriptive statistics such as mean, median, mode, S.D., and t test were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that there was significant effect oflocality, gender & stream of study on professional commitment among teacher educators.The findings reveal that male and female, urban and rural, science and arts teacher educators differ significantly on professional commitment.


Review of Related Literature:-
studied on teachers' perceived commitment as measured by age, gender and school type. The sample of the study consisted of 381 secondary school teachers. The results showed that age, gender and school types have significant but small effects on professional commitment of secondary school teachers.
Malik & Sharma (2013) explored professional commitment of secondary school teachers in relation to their professional commitment. The study comprises a sample of 300 teachers from 36 secondary schools. The results revealed that locality of the schools influence the professional commitment and also that professional commitment is independent of gender difference. Bakan, I., et. al. (2011). Conducted a study to examine the relationship between education level and organizational commitment and found statistically significant relationships between education level and organizational commitment. Gamoran (2003), in his study on School Effectiveness and school improvement, found that professional development opportunities are more likely to increase teachers sense of professional commitment if they are school wide, while programs in which individuals teachers participate without other teachers from their school are unlikely to do so. Hung and Liu (1999) conducted a study on effects of stay back of teachers on professional commitment. The study was conducted on 493 teachers teaching in teachers college in Taiwan in 1999. Stay-back is the factors which is most highly related to commitment. The other factors like marital status, age and tenure were also found to be significantly related to commitment.

Need and Significance of the Study
The quality of life of citizens of a nation depends upon the quality of their education, their attitude, values and knowledge which turnsdepend upon the quality of teachers who are the pillar of the educational system. The development of such skilled teachers, in turn, depends on the quality and professional commitment of teacher educators. In recentyears, India has taken a fresh and more serious look at the role of education within the context of overall national development. The goals of education follow the national goals of development which aims at Human Resources Development. The development of human resource is possible through a properly organized programme of excellence education. Undoubtedly, the quality of school education is the through consequence and outcome of the quality of teachers and teacher education system. It is imperative, that the teacher has to assume greater responsibility so as to initiate action for the alteration of society as a mediator of social change and thereby 614 help achieve the goal of national development by providing quality education. In this context, quality improvement of teacher education program is one of the essential needs. The role of a teacher educator in the educational process is more inspiring and lively. The teacher educator"s work is not only transmission of knowledge but it is much more. The problems of teacher educator"s quality, training and professional commitment is vital to the improvement of not only our education system but also in achieving the goal of education for all. Hence the teacher educators need to possess a high professional commitment to fulfil these functions. The review of related literature reveals that research efforts have been directed towards professional commitment of teachers but not of teacher educators. Hence the study is a modest endeavor in this direction. An adequate assessment and evaluation based study is essential to assess the Professional Commitment of Teacher Educators in Relation to Locality, Gender and Streams of Study in the State of West Bengal. Hence, the present study was undertaken and it is an attempt to find out the Professional Commitment of Teacher Educators in Relation to Locality, Gender and Streams of Study in the State of West Bengal. Despite of many studies on Teacher Educators related areas, till now no research has been conducted on Professional Commitment of Teacher Educators in Relation to Locality, Gender and Streams of Study in the State of West Bengal. The findings of the study will be helpful for the state government, policy makers, principals, teachers and parents to know the Professional Commitment of Teacher EducatorsRelation to Locality, Gender and Streams of Study in the State of West Bengal. And it will also overcome the research gap in this area.

Objectives of the Study:-
The following are the objectives of the study 1. To assess the level of professional commitment of Teacher Educators with respect to gender in the state of West Bengal. 2. To assess the level of professional commitment of Teacher Educators with respect to locality in the state of West Bengal. 3. To investigate the difference in professional commitment of teacher educator with respect to stream of study in the state of West Bengal.
Hypotheses of the Study H0-1: There is no significant difference in professional commitment between urban and rural male Teacher Educators in the state of West Bengal. H0-2: There is no significant difference in professional commitment between urban and rural female Teacher Educators in the state of West Bengal. H0-3: There is no significant difference in professional commitment of Teacher Educators with respect to gender in state of West Bengal. H0-4: There is no significant difference in professional commitment between science and arts Teacher Educators in the state of West Bengal. H0-5: There is no significant difference in professional commitment between science and arts male Teacher Educators in the state of West Bengal. H0-6: There is no significant difference in professional commitment between science and arts female Teacher Educators in the state of West Bengal. H0-7: There is no significant difference in professional commitment between science male and science female Teacher Educators in the state of West Bengal. H0-8: There is no significant difference in professional commitment between arts male and arts female Teacher Educators in the state of West Bengal.

Delimitation of the study
Due to the shortage of time and not the availability of proper resources, the researcher has limited this study to the following groundi) The researcher has confined the study only in the state of West Bengal.
ii) The researcher has limited the study only on teacher educators.
iii) The researcher has collected 240 samples which consist of 120 males and 120 females.

Research Design and Methodology of the Study:-
There is great need to plan and design a procedure and method for any research work. It is the backbone of the research problems. An attempt has been made to provide a brief outline of the methodological plan described under the following subheads.

Research method:-
The descriptive survey method will be used in this study by the investigator.

Population:
In the present study, population refers to all the teacher educators of the colleges of education approved by NCTE and affiliated by various universities of West Bengal.

Sample:
The sample comprise of 240 the teacher educators of the colleges of education approved by NCTE and affiliated by various universities of West Bengal.

Statistical Techniques:
The data were analyzed by the researcher using the following statistical techniques i.e. Mean, S.D. and t-test.

Interpretation
The above table reveals that the calculated"t" value is more than the tabulated "t" value at 0.05 significant level and at 118 df, hence the null hypothesis is rejected. Thus, there exists a significant difference of professional commitment between urban and rural teacher educators in the state of West Bengal. The result in the table shows that the urban maleteacher educators (M=102.47) possess higher professional commitment than rural maleteacher educators (M=98.05).TheS.D. of urban maleteacher educators is 7.83 and the S.D. of rural male teacher educators is 9.54. The results are also clear from the following diagram.  *Significance at 0.05 level.

Interpretation
The above table reveals that the calculated "t" value is more than the tabulated "t" value at 0.05

Interpretation
The above table reveals that the calculated"t" value is more than the tabulated "t" value at 0.05 significant level and at 238 degrees of freedom. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected. Thus, there exists a significant difference between male and female teacher educators. The result in the table shows that the male teacher educators (M=100.26) possess higher professional commitment than those of female teacher educators (M=94.52). The S.D. of male teacher educators is 8.90 and the S.D. of female teacher educators is 9.00. The results are also clear from the following diagram.

Interpretation
The "t" value in the Table reveals that the teacher educators of Science and Arts streams differed significantly in their professional commitment. As the table indicated that the mean score of the teacher educators of Science stream is 103.08 and the mean score of teacher educators of Arts stream is 91.79. The S. D. of teacher educators of the Science stream is 6.76 and the S.D. of teacher educators of Arts stream is 8.31. The "t" value 11.54 is found to be significant at 0.05 level of confidence. It shows that there is a true difference inprofessional commitment between the teacher educators of Science streams and Arts streamsin the state of West Bengal. The difference inprofessional commitment between theteacher educators of Science and Arts streams may be because of their course ofstudy. The results are also clear from the following diagram.

Interpretation
The"t" value in the table shows that there is a significant difference inprofessional commitment between Science and Arts Male teacher educatorsin the state of West Bengsl. As the table shows that the mean score of Scienceand Arts Male teacher educators are 106.93 and 93.75 respectively. TheS.D. of Science stream Male teacher educators is 2.71 and Arts stream Male teacher educators is 8.25 in the state of West Bengal. The "t" value 11.754 was found significant at 0.05level of confidence which is higher than the tabulated "t" value(1.98). Thus, it shows that there is a true difference of professional commitment between the Science and Arts male teacher educators in the state of West Bengal. The greater mean value of science male shows that they are possess more professional commitment than the arts male teacher educators. The reason may be the influence of their subject"s contents which always tries to lay much more emphasis on professional developments.The results are also clear from the following diagram.

Interpretation
The "t; value in the table shows that there is a significant difference inprofessional commitment between science and arts female teacher educatorsin the state of West Bengal. The result shows that the mean value of Science Female is 99.23 is higher than the mean value of Arts female teacher educator 89.83. The S.D. of Science Female is 7.395 while the S.D. of Arts female teacher educator is 7.953. The "t" value is found "t"= 6.704 which means that there is a significant difference inprofessional commitment between science and arts female teacher educators in the state of West Bengal. Therefore, the hypothesis H.0-6 is rejected. The greater mean value of science female teacher educator shows that they are possess more professional commitment than the arts female teacher educator. The reason may be

MEAN SCORE OF SCIENCE AND ARTS MALE TEACHER EDUCATOR
619 the influence of their subject"s contents which always tries to lay much more emphasis professional developments.The results are also clear from the following diagram.

Interpretation
The "t" value in the table reveals a significant difference inprofessional commitment between Science Male and female teacher educators in the state of West Bengal. Hence, the null hypothesis H0-7 is rejected. The results presented in the table shows that the male teacher educator (M=106.93) of the science stream are possess more professional commitment as compared to the female teacher educators (M=99.23) of the same stream. The "t" value 7.570is very much significant at 0.05 level of significance. Hence the difference of professional commitment between Science Male and Female teacher educators in the state of West Bengal are not due to chance. The investigator did not find any valid reason for such variation.The results are also clear from the following diagram.

Interpretation
The "t" value in the table reveals a significant difference inprofessional commitment between Arts Male and Arts female teacher educators in the state of West Bengal. Hence, the null hypothesis H.0-8 is rejected. The results presented in the table shows that the male (M=93.75) of the Arts stream are possess more professional commitment as compared to the female (M=89.83) of the same stream. The "t" value 2.647 is very much significant at 0.05 level of confidence. Hence, the difference of professional commitment between Arts Male and Female teacher educators in the state of West Bengal are not due to the chance. The investigator did not find any valid reason for such variation.The results are also clear from the following diagram.

Findings of the Study
The major findings related to the objectives of the present study are given as follows: 1. It was found that teacher educators of urban areas possess more professional commitment than the rural areas.It has been found that urban areas are more expensive than inrural areas. Their living style is more practical in urban areas and they possess more professional commitment.

2.
It was found that male teacher educators are enjoy more professional commitment than femaleteacher educators. The above result reveals that there is an impact of gender difference over professional commitment. It shows that male and female are not equally concerned about their professional commitments, 3. It was found that Science teacher educatorspossess more professional commitment than the Arts teacher educators in the state of West Bengal.The teacher educators of Arts stream are less aware ofprofessional commitment because of their lack of scientific attitude. 4. On comparing professional commitment between urban male and urban female on the total sample, it was found that the urban male has more professional commitment than urban female teacher educators in the state of West Bengal.

5.
On comparing professional commitment between rural male and rural female on the total sample, it was found that the rural male has more professional commitment than rural female teacher educators in the state of West Bengal.

Conclusion:-
A committed and competent teacher educator is one of the most crucial factor in the success of any educational institution. A teacher educator who is truly committed to student teacher is one that puts student teacher"s learning

MEAN SCORE OF ARTS MALE & FEMALE TEACHER EDUCATOR
621 and interests above everything else. In the present study an attempt was made by the researcher to study professional commitment among rural and urban, male and female, science and arts teacher educators. The findings of the study suggested that there exist difference in the rural and urban, male and female, science and arts teacher educators with respect to professional commitment. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that urban teacher educators are more committed toward their profession than rural teacher educators and male teacher educators possess professional commitment than female teacher educators, one the other hand science streams teacher educators are more committed toward their profession than the arts stream teacher educators. The factors influencing the levels of commitment of the teacher educators in the educational institution and in the wider education systems must necessarily be the focus of an important field of research leading to theimprovement and transformation within classrooms and lecture theatres, learning centres, schools, institutions and,national organisations of education.

Educational implications
In the light of findings of the study the following educational implications are suggested: 1. There is needful requirement of workshops in the educational institutions which promote work culture among the teacher educators.
2. There has to be a regular appreciation of good performance of teacher educators and there should be appraisals in the form of rewards.
3. There is a conscious necessity of checking the status of teacher educators so as to ensure that they get the prescribed financial help under rules. 4. The promotional opportunities can only be made available to each teacher educators keeping in view the transparency of evaluation criteria