Assessing the occupational challenges for Tehran Municipality Waste Management educators

Waste Management Organization (WMO) has always sought to educate and promote citizens in waste separation from the source. WMO, by developing the training programs, seeks to teach the concept of waste management operations to public citizens. This can be done through the municipal waste management educators. However, the question that should be addressed in this study is that: what challenges the municipal waste management educators are faced with in carrying out their duties, knowing that the problems and challenges of a career in teaching are usually considered as barriers. This study was carried out based on the questionnaires of Akphilet and Kout, in which 172 educators, working in municipal WMO, responded 5 questions on the Likert scale. Occupational challenges check reveals that the place of employment has not provided the necessary opportunities for learning and professional development. Yet, 59% of the educators believed that the organization needed to encourage learning and did not provide the basis for more professional development. However, the teachers of 20-25 and over 35 years old are seeking professional development opportunities more than others, and people become less willing to use their professional growth opportunities with the increase of their experience. The results showed that the influence of organizational factors of progress is more than individual factors. The people believe that the organization have to provide the basis for development and professional growth rather than attempting to make development and professional growth by themselves. The regression coefficient calculated for professional development measures showed that different parts affect the process of professional development.