Sociological investigation of the level of political participation of educators and social factors affecting it (case study: Ardabil province)

Abstract

     Purpose: Today in compared to the past, people's attitudes and tendencies towards political issues have changed, and political participation is one of the most important topics among global societies. As a result, the current research was conducted with the aim of sociologically investigating of the political participation level of teachers and social factors Affecting it.Methodology: The current research in terms of purpose was applied and in terms of implementation, method was descriptive. The statistical population of this study was all working teachers of Ardabil province in the 2020-2021academic years with number of 16300 people, which the sample size according to Cochran's formula was determined 380 people and this number were selected by stratified random sampling method. The tool of the current research was the 85-item researcher-made questionnaire of teachers' political participation with an emphasis on social factors Affecting it, which its face validity was confirmed by the opinion of experts familiar with the research field, and its total reliability was obtained using the Cronbach's alpha method 0.87. In order to answer the research hypotheses were used from frequency, frequency percentage, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression methods in SPSS software.Findings: The findings showed that in most teachers of Ardabil province the level of political participation, political motivation, and political situation of environment, satisfaction from political elites, political activity and political influence had on a low level, political skill had on an average level and political awareness, use of mass media and political extroversion had on a high level. Also, the variables of political skill, political awareness, use of mass media, political motivation, political situation of environment, satisfaction from political elites, political activity, political influence and political extroversion had a positive and significant relationship with the political participation of teachers (P<0.001). In addition, each of the variables of political skill, political awareness, use of mass media, political motivation, political situation of environment, satisfaction from political elites, political activity, political influence and political extroversion had a significant role in predicting the political participation of teachers (P<0.001).Conclusion: According to the results of this study, in order to increase the political participation of teachers, it is possible to provide the ground for improvement and promotion the political skill, political awareness, use of mass media, political motivation, and political situation of environment, satisfaction from political elites, political activity, political influence and political extroversion.