Steve Dinham

Moving into the third, outer domain of teacher satisfaction

Models of teacher satisfaction post‐Herzberg have generally presented two mutually exclusive domains of teacher satisfaction/dissatisfaction. However, use of a survey with 2,000 teachers and school executive in England, New Zealand and Australia has provided evidence for a third domain of teacher satisfaction/dissatisfaction grounded in the wider environment surrounding the school, a domain which has grown in importance and influence and which teachers and school executive find uniformly dissatisfying. This outer domain has acted to erode overall teacher satisfaction in contravention of the general principles of “two‐factor” theories of job satisfaction. It is argued that teachers, schools, and others with an interest in education, need to build bridges, forge partnerships and actively participate in educational discourse with members of this outer domain. Further, educational systems and governments need to look within the outer domain of teacher satisfaction for answers to the problems currently facing teachers, schools and society.

A three domain model of teacher and school executive career satisfaction

This paper presents a model of teacher and school executive satisfaction derived from a study involving 892 respondents in 71 government schools in Western Sydney, Australia. Factor analysis of survey items was utilised to develop an eight factor model of teacher satisfaction. The eight factors were named: school leadership, climate, decision making; merit promotion and local hiring; school infrastructure; school reputation; status and image of teachers; student achievement; workload and the impact of change; and professional self‐growth. Scores on the scales fell into three domains: “core business of teaching” factors (student achievement; professional self‐growth); school level factors (school leadership, climate, decision making; school infrastructure; school reputation); and system level/societal factors (workload and impact of change; status and image of teachers; merit promotion). Respondents were most satisfied with “core business” aspects and least satisfied with system level/societal factors, while school level factors showed the most variation, reflecting the influence of teachers’ specific and varying within‐school experiences. Leadership, communication and decision making styles were found to be important contributing factors to satisfaction with school based aspects of respondents’ roles. It is argued that within the important, school level domain, action to improve teacher satisfaction is most likely to be effective.

The Occupational Motivation, Satisfaction and Health of English School Teachers

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of a study of a sample of 609 English teachers and school executive (headteachers, deputies, etc.). The study sought to examine and benchmark teachers’ occupational motivation, satisfaction and health and to test a model of teacher satisfaction developed in Australia in a previous research phase. English teachers were found, in common with their Australian counterparts, to be motivated most strongly by altruism, affiliation and personal growth. They were also found, again like Australian teachers, to be most satisfied with ‘core business’ aspects of teaching‐‐facilitating student learning and achievement, developing as a professional and working with other staff; and the least satisfied with matters from systemic and societal levels‐‐the nature and pace of educational change, and the status and image of teaching. Between these two domains lay factors specific to particular schools: school leadership and communication, school resources and relationships with communi...

School climate and leadership: research into three secondary schools

Draws on the findings of a major research project funded by the New South Wales Department of School Education in Australia which sought to examine the school‐community interface and communication in government comprehensive high schools in that state. Data were drawn initially from nine schools in Western Sydney with three of these schools being the subject of in‐depth follow‐up study. These studies revealed the significant role played by senior school executives, particularly the principal, in the development of communication methods in schools and their influence on school culture and climate. Examines decision making and communication methods in the three schools within the context of each school′s environment and draws implications for school leadership, staff morale, and staff, student and community attitudes. A key finding is that there is no “recipe” for success as a principal. Rather, a contingency approach is advocated whereby individual principals adopt a personal position across a range of imp...

The beatings will continue until quality improves: using carrots and sticks in the quest for educational improvement

Abstract Education is not alone in becoming the focus of attention and anxiety about the quality of its activities and outputs, although it is perhaps unique in the degree to which it has been publicly and conspicuously subject to scrutiny and castigation for its ‘failings’. Certainly, public education throughout the Western world has been under attack and scrutiny for its perceived ‘low standards’ and the ‘crisis’ said to characterise it (although this crisis is, to many, a ‘manufactured’ one; Berliner & Biddle, 1995). Power (1994) contends that the tensions and contradictions of high modernity explain the widespread adoption of a model of ‘quality assurance’ based upon ‘the audit’, originally a financial phenomenon. The favoured style of auditing – ‘Style A’ – has as its characteristics long distance control, usually by external agencies, quantitative measures, low trust and ex-post control. These important features are linked: for instance, the involvement of outside bodies of experts in the oversight of activities has facilitated a shift in trust from operatives, the performers of activities, to auditors, those who police performance. The particular features of the auditing model adopted come to influence what are seen as acceptable ‘solutions’ to ‘problems’. This paper discusses some of these ‘solutions’ to the ‘problems’ of ‘low quality’ and the consequences for teacher practitioners.