Professional Awareness of Italian Educators in Initial Undergraduate Training

The research presented investigates the professional awareness of undergraduate students enrolled in the degree course in Educational Sciences at the University of Catania. A specially constructed inventory allowed for an understanding of students’ awareness about their future roles as educators and about the various professions available to them, still in their initial training at university. The inventory consisted of 25 questions which sought to distinguish between the role of the educator and the role of other professionals in social fields (psychologists, social workers, teachers). The questions described the role of the professional, based on the descriptions in the Atlas of Professions (Luciano, 2013). This study describes the validation process as well as the results from an initial administering of the survey on a sample of 250 students from the University of Catania.