Psychological and Legal Competence of Teachers: Development of the concept and substantiation of the model

Abstract

Background. Modern social circumstances in the educational system demonstrate that school teachers may need different competencies to handle sociocultural threats, for example, bullying, violence, terrorism, etc. (Kozlova, 2017; Sobkin, Smyslova, 2014). Teachers have to interact in psychologically tense, ambiguous from the legal point of view situations (Babushkin, Yakovlev, 2016; Smirnova, 2019). These aspects make it necessary to comprehensively apply the psychological and legal competence of a modern teacher in professional activities. At the same time, the concept of psychological and legal competence (PLC) of a teacher needs scientific and theoretical justification as well as empirical verification.

Objective. The aim is to develop the concept and to substantiate the model of psychological and legal competence of a teacher.

Study Participants. The study involved 11 respondents aged 23 to 57 years, students and specialists of various profiles.

Methods. The applied methodology involved synthesis, comparison, generalization, analysis of psychological, pedagogical, scientific and methodological literature, current normative legal acts and strategic documents in the field of education. Case method was used for collecting empirical information (texts) with further semantic, content and conceptual analysis of the content of information (texts in the amount of 33 906 characters) on the topic of psychological and legal competence of a teacher (word rate statistics analysis: number of mentions and percentage vs entire text).

Results. The definition is proposed, the model and functions are described, the structural components, the substantive components of the psychological and legal competence of the teacher are highlighted. Consideration of psychological and legal competence as a system of personal qualities of a teacher, acting as a regulator of conscious actions in professional activities, is justified. The structure of the teacher’s PLC describes: the cognitive component (psychological and legal training, knowledge), the emotional component (treating the law and the practice of its application in educational relations as a value), the behavioral component (action/inaction of the teacher due to legal attitudes and aimed at achieving professional goals).

Conclusions. The article reveals the content of the main modern threats and challenges a teacher faces in the framework of educational relations. The development of a comprehensive psychological and legal competence of teachers is suggested as way to deal with these modern challenges in education.