Sources of professional satisfaction of secondary school teachers

© SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 SOURCES OF PROFESSIONAL SATISFACTION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS Fuentes de satisfacción laboral en los profesores de Primer Ciclo de Secundaria Beata Jakimiuk Fecha de recepción: 12/02/2015 Fecha de aceptación: 15/11/2015 ABSTRACT: Professional satisfaction is a particularly important issue, especially when it refers to teachers’ work, since they are responsible for education of the future generation. It is crucial that people in this profession are happy and do not suffer from burnout or frustration. The article presents issues concerning professional satisfaction and the most important activity zones of a teacher. The aim of the article is to show factors connected with teachers’ work which have the biggest impact on their professional satisfaction; an analysis of empirical research, followed by presentation of the results, serves as an exemplification thereof. KEYWORDS: professional satisfaction, teachers, professional work RESUMEN: La satisfacción laboral es una cuestión esencial al referir a la labor de profesores que educan a las nuevas generaciones. Es importante que esa labor sea ejecutada por las personas contentas y sin sentimiento de frustración laboral. El artículo presenta las cuestiones de la satisfacción laboral y los elementos más importantes del funcionamiento de un profesor en su trabajo. El fin de la obra es presentar aquellos factores relacionados con el trabajo de los profesores que tienen más impacto al sentimiento de satisfacción laboral. La ejemplificación de las cuestiones analizadas está basada en los resultados de los estudios empíricos de ese entorno y en la presentación de las conclusiones. PALABRAS CLAVE: satisfacción laboral, profesores, trabajo profesional Introduction For everybody work represents a certain value, a chance for development and fulfilment of many important needs. It provides financial benefits, facilitates contacts with environment and favours establishing bonds and friendships. A person who has found their personal fulfilment is usually also the professionally active one who treats job as their passion and vocation. Professional work is an element which prevents social exclusion and isolation and enables achieving a certain social position. Work may also be treated as a kind of therapy, it creates opportunities for self-fulfilment, prevents emptiness, boredom and passiveness. Getting a job usually triggers improvement of financial situation, but above all increases the self-esteem. Being professionally active gives an individual a sense of being needed and increases their general life satisfaction. Work counteracts helplessness and enables to catch up with socio-economical changes, making important life decisions, encourages selfdevelopment and self-enrichment. 76 Beata Jakimiuk © SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 Professional work is connected with necessity, difficulty, effort and obligation. On the other hand, it enables making use of one’s potential and gives the sense of fulfilment. It is hard to imagine one being happy with their life without being satisfied with their work. Therefore it is worthwhile to examine the sources of professional satisfaction as base for contentment and fulfilment at work and, consequently, in life. Teachers are a professional group having an undeniable impact on education of next generations, it is thus essential that this job is performed by people who are happy and not professionally frustrated. Hence, it is useful to define elements related to teachers’ professional work which contribute to increase in their professional satisfaction. The article aims at showing those factors which have the biggest impact on teachers’ professional satisfaction. Satisfaction with work will be discussed in the context of the most important zones of teachers’ professional activity. Dependencies between particular professional satisfaction factors will be exemplified by an analysis of empirical research, followed by presentation of its results. Definition and conditions of work satisfaction One of the fundamental aspects of individual’s functioning in the professional environment is their satisfaction with work. This feeling can be described as a pleasant emotional state resulting from self-assessment of one’s own work and professional experience. Professional satisfaction depends on various conditions. The most general classification divides them into two groups: situational, connected with the working environment and subjective, referring to employee’s personal characteristics, like age, health, years of professional experience, emotional stability, social status, favourite leisure activities, family, social connections, motivation, aspirations and way of their fulfilment through work (Schultz & Schultz, 2006), values, cognitive style and particular personal characteristics. Experiencing professional satisfaction is an individual impression: one employee may not be satisfied with conditions entirely satisfying for another. Professional satisfaction concerns adequacy between values expected by an employee and enhancements (awards and punishments) obtained at work (Karney, 2004). It is an outcome of working environment factors and individual characteristics of an employee but also an equation balancing work resources and its effects, like professional success, promotion, bonuses and being praised by supervisors and colleagues. One of the factors most closely related to professional satisfaction is commitment to work. People who are strongly committed demonstrate stronger emotional reactions to success and failure than people who do not attribute so much importance (Bańka, 2000). Commitment is always followed by conscientiousness and diligent fulfilment of professional tasks. Research have shown that highly diligent and goal-oriented people are more often professionally successful and satisfied as through reliability and responsible behaviour they develop personal competences and feeling of control (Barrick & Mount, 2011). This is also favoured by the nature of professional assignments when professional tasks trigger new challenges, overcoming obstacles and solving problems. This kind of work leads to increase of professional satisfactions which consequently results in higher self-esteem. Another factor important for professional satisfaction is emotional stability (Barrick & Mount, 2011). Emotionally unstable people experience more stress and lack of satisfaction from work and life, and in case of problems they manifest strong negative reactions. High level of emotional stability contributes to higher professional satisfaction as emotionally stable people tend to be more self-confident and perceive themselves and the environment in a Sources of professional satisfaction of Secondary school teachers 77 © SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 positive way. They do not let negative emotions interfere with realization of their professional obligations. Another important factors favouring professional satisfaction are comparison to other people (Wunder & Schwarze, 2009) and education. Higher education level, connected to greater aspirations, makes the best educated employees likely to experience a low-level professional satisfaction (Vanin, 2001). The level of experienced professional satisfaction changes with the employee’s age. Older employees are more professionally satisfied, not only because of their higher remuneration but also because they have a lower level of expectations and aspirations concerning their professional career; they are not comparing themselves with other people (Clark, Oswald & Warr, 1996). Professional satisfaction may be felt as a general contentment with work or a partial one, regarding particular aspects of work. For instance, employees may be satisfied with their salaries but dislike their supervisor. The general satisfaction concerns a comprehensive attitude towards work, independent from singular factors. In this situation, the satisfaction stimuli may be external factors, for example prestige of a company. Commitment to work and professional satisfaction connected with it are very important sources of life satisfaction and contribute significantly to general happiness. Research have shown that not only is general satisfaction closely linked with professional satisfaction but also that they have a positive mutual connection: a general life satisfaction can influence the professional satisfaction and vice versa (Judge & Watanabe, 1993). People tend to be happy with their lives when they combine their career with family life (Frey & Stutzer, 2002). Balance between professional and family life is understood as a state of being able to cope with a potential conflict between various demands concerning their time and energy in such a way that his desire for well-being is satisfied (Clutterbuck, 2003). Research concerning dimensions and conditions of professional satisfaction show how complex this issue is. This is related to diversity of the conditions for professional satisfaction, among other things, subjectivity of employees’ impressions, context of the professional activity and working culture of the workplace. Because of this complexity, researchers describe various dimensions of professional satisfaction. Some of them concern all occupations and professions, other apply only to particular jobs. Taking into consideration different contexts, it seems that professional satisfaction referring to all professional occupations should be distinguished from the one concerning a particular job or defined profession. Both aspects will be presented based on the example of a teacher. Characteristics of teachers’ professional work Professional satisfaction may be understood as a state of self-definition which results from many conditions, including the working environment. Professional satisfaction can be influenced by teacher’s social status, depending on whether teacher’s professional tasks and obligations are publicly acknowledged and if problems concerning this profession and working environment are known. Therefore it is worthwhile to carry out an analysis of the working environment, professional tasks and obligations, as well as of social image of the teacher in order to present the process of teacher’s professional satisfaction development. Such an analysis should take into account particularity of professional tasks, specific for each profession. Basic professional tasks of a teacher can be defined according to functions of school: didactic, educational and caretaking. Didactic tasks of a teacher are 78 Beata Jakimiuk © SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 connected with planning, organizing and implementation of the teaching process, in order to achieve didactic and educational goals. They aim at deepening the knowledge and developing the skills. Didactic tasks may be determined through analysis of curricula for each educational stage. Educational tasks concern intended and conscious influence over a student in order to develop them in a comprehensive manner and prepare the student to live in a society in line with commonly agreed values and ethics. They also cover motivating the students to work, establishing interpersonal relationships through communication and group assignments, getting self-presentation skills and developing greater self-esteem through presentation of the own work results, developing self-reliance, responsibility and self-discipline, willingness to develop professionally and enrich one’s own personality. Caretaking tasks concern occupational health and safety, including creating a feeling of safety at class and eliminating physical and psychical strain. During their entire period of professional activity a teacher carries out also research tasks, aiming at diagnosis and analysis of teaching-learning processes. These include, for instance, analysis of educational effects, attendance and search for didactic, methodological, organizational and technical solutions. Teacher’s research tasks include, among others, identification and satisfaction of students’ needs, recognition and development of their possibilities, discovery of their weak and strong points, evaluation of the realized curriculum, collection of information regarding teaching and educational methods efficiency, analysis of educational activities carried out by teachers, school psychologists and school management, compilation of statistical data concerning educational effects in their own workplace and other schools, exam results, analysis of learning progress, class attendance, as well as acquisition of didactic, methodological and organizational skills through participation in training, courses and post-graduate studies (Jakimiuk 2012). In order to carry out the didactic, educational and caretaking tasks a teacher should have the necessary knowledge and skills, especially the pedagogical and psychological ones, and in-depth expertise concerning their specialization; they also should be aware of teaching methodology. Teachers also have to face numerous organizational tasks throughout their whole professional activity. They have to face diversity of working conditions and classroom equipment. In the situation of insufficient financial resources they have to cope with shortages of teaching aids, especially since their work assessment is based on the teaching effects. Therefore they also have to organize the didactic process, including didactic aids, in an optimal way, as well as to establish legible and easily understandable rules of using the school workshops (Jakimiuk, 2012). Organizational tasks of a teachers require cooperation with people responsible for education: with school management, other teachers and parents, as well as with the local authorities, employers and cultural events organizers. While analysing teacher’s professional work one should mention different factors occurring at workplace which have a significant impact on the quality of realization of professional tasks, such as: school location and architecture, classroom and workshop equipment, atmosphere at work, relationships with students, other teachers, parents and supervisors, working hours, professional tasks and obligations and organization of work at school. Naturally also teacher’s specialization and its consequences should be taken into account as this job is highly diversified, regarding the position, subject taught, school type and education stage. The rank of promotion granted to a teacher is an important element of professional qualification. It concerns professionally active teachers and is based on experience, professional development and aspiration for perfection in the job. Currently the promotion Sources of professional satisfaction of Secondary school teachers 79 © SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 ranks are trainee teacher, contractual teacher, appointed teacher and chartered teacher, the latter being awarded after at least 10 years in profession. Achievement of individual professional identity and constant analysis thereof are a basis for good fulfilment of a professional role as they enable improvement or change of teaching methods and way of thinking and thus professional and personal development. The level of teacher’s identification with their job has a direct effect on their professional satisfaction, manifested with identification with the role and responsibility for their school’s functioning and development (Jakimiuk, 2014). Professional satisfaction of teachers is shaped through carrying out various professional tasks and obligations. To an extent it also depends on the teachers themselves, their activity, developing and making use of their potential. Due to the complex character of teachers’ work the research on their professional satisfaction should focus on certain fixed areas of their professional activity. Results of such research may constitute a basis for further, detailed analysis on teachers’ professional satisfaction. Own research The starting point for the research was the assumption that professional satisfaction is an important subjective impression of an employee and leads to positive effects in professional work and private life. Hence, the key objective of the research was to discover sources of teachers’ professional satisfaction through seeking their views on everyday school work. School work experience gathered through years and analysis of literature on professional satisfaction and teachers’ professional activity made it possible to design a research model concerning the three professional activity areas of respondents. Fig. 1. Research model for teacher’s professional satisfaction Source: own study Based on main objective of the research the following research questions need to be addressed: 1. Which factors in the activity areas have most impact on professional satisfaction? 2. What is the connection between the teacher’s professional experience and the sources of professional satisfaction they mention? 3. What are the relations between other factors influencing the professional satisfaction? Relationships with colleagues Sources of professional satisfaction Personal achievements Working with students 80 Beata Jakimiuk © SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 4. Which factors are most motivating for teachers? 5. To which greatest advantages of their job do the teachers point? The research was carried out in March and April in secondary schools in Swidnik. There are three state secondary schools in Swidnik, one of which is a separate institution, the other is part of a school complex together with a primary and a high school, the last one belongs to a school complex together with a primary school. The research was conducted using a diagnostic survey, the survey being a technique with questionnaire a tool. The respondents were asked to assess the importance of professional satisfaction sources in given areas in a scale from 5 (most important) to 1 (least important). In the work with students area the following factors had to put in order: good relationships with students, discipline, successes of students in competitions, increase in knowledge, common skills of students. For the relationships with colleagues area the teachers were supposed to prioritise: good relationships with other teachers, good relationships with supervisors, support from colleagues, appreciation and having trusted friends. The last area of research concerned personal achievements, with the following factors: professional promotion rank, awards and distinctions, having an additional degree (second faculty, post-graduate studies etc.) and professional knowledge and skills. Teachers could also answer open questions, in order to define other factors which have not been mentioned in the survey, describe advantages of teacher’s profession and outline these conditions of teachers’ work which have most impact on their work motivation. All the teachers from secondary schools in Swidnik who took part in the survey have agreed to participate in it. The subjects have answered the questions anonymously. 82% of the questionnaires were filled in correctly and constituted basis for the empirical analysis. In the metric part the subjects provided information on their sex, working experience in years and rank of professional promotion. From among the subjects, there were 10 men and 72 women, constituting respectively12,2% and 87,8% of all the respondents, confirming domination of women in this profession. The surveyed teachers constituted a group of various work experience and different professional promotion ranks, which is shown in the Table 1. Table 1. Work experience and professional promotion rank of the respondents Professional experience in years Professional promotion rank Sum trainee teacher contractual teacher appointed teacher chartered teacher N % N % N % N % N % 0-10 years 3 4 11 13 6 7 0 - 20 24 11-20 years 0 - 0 - 9 11 23 28 32 39 21-34 years 0 - 0 - 7 9 23 28 30 37 All 3 4 11 13 22 27 46 56 82 100 In the surveyed secondary schools most teachers have work experience longer than 10 years (76% respondents) and have the highest professional promotion rank: chartered teacher (56% subjects). This shows that the answers to the questionnaire come mostly from people with wide professional experience, who have already faced many problems and difficult Sources of professional satisfaction of Secondary school teachers 81 © SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 situations in their careers. This suggests that the collected study data is credible and the answers result from teachers’ reflection on their own work and different areas of functioning in the profession. In order to define the most important factors for teachers’ professional satisfaction and to study the dependencies mentioned in the research issues, collation of percentages and the following statistical methods have been applied: calculation of arithmetic average, mode and Pearson's correlation coefficient. The empirical study data has been analized using Statistica 10. Statistical tests have been carried out at significance level: p=0,01. Presentation and analysis of research results Quantitative analysis of professional satisfaction sources pointed to by the respondents leads to formulation of the most important factors influencing the level of professional satisfaction. The research results are presented in the table where sources of professional satisfaction have been ordered according to the calculated arithmetic average. Table 2. Work with students Source of professional satisfaction M Increase in knowledge and skills of the students 3,57 Good relationships with students 3,43 Increase in knowledge and skills of the weaker students 3,10 Discipline 2,71 Successes of students in competitions 2,20 The research results show that increase of knowledge and skills of the students is the greatest source of teachers’ professional satisfaction related to work with students, followed by good relationships with them and increase in knowledge and skills of the weaker students. Teachers are satisfied when they can discipline their students, whereas successes of students in competitions are not as important for them as the other factors mentioned. The biggest weight (5) was assigned mostly to good relationships with students and to increase in knowledge and skills of all students. Sum of all the averages obtained in this area is 15,01. Table 3. Relationships to colleagues Source of professional satisfaction M Good relationships to the teachers 3,46 Possibility to get help and support from colleagues 3,34 Good relationships with supervisors 3,11 Feeling of being appreciated by others 2,91 Having trusted friends 2,20 Experiencing professional satisfaction in the area concerning relationships with colleagues depends mostly on good relationships with other teachers and on possibility of getting help and support from them. Another important factor regarding professional 82 Beata Jakimiuk © SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 satisfaction are good relationships to supervisors and feeling appreciated. Having trusted friends among other teachers is the least significant factor. The highest grade (5) was marked mostly for good relationships with other teachers, the following grade (4) for good relationships with supervisors which points to high importance of this factor, even if getting help and support from other teachers got eventually a higher average grade. The sum of all the averages for this area was 15,02. Table 4. Personal achievements Source of professional satisfaction M Professional knowledge and skills 3,96 Proper fulfillment of professional tasks and obligations 3,49 Having an additional degree (second faculty, post-graduate studies etc.) 2,78 Professional promotion rank 2,38 Awards and distinctions 2,39 The greatest source of professional satisfaction regarding personal achievements are for teachers their professional knowledge and skills where survey average was the highest among all of the chosen sources of professional satisfaction (in every area the same gradation scale has been used). At the same time, the professional knowledge and skills were the option most often given the highest grade (5). An important factor influencing satisfaction is a feeling of being a reliable and conscientious employee who can keep deadlines. The next factor was an additional degree, whereas awards and distinctions and professional promotion rank received similar grades and proved to be least significant from among professional satisfaction sources. This may prove the teachers value the achievements they acquire themselves through their own efforts, often subjectively evaluated and sometimes little appreciated, higher than external appreciation. Sum of all the averages obtained in this area is 15. Table 5. Correlation between variables Zmienne Feeling appreciated Professional promotion rank Awards and distinctions Professionalism r p< r p< r p< r p< Maintaining discipline -0,09 0,418 0,31 0,005 -0,15 0,189 -0,29 0,007 Successes of students in competitions 0,10 0,365 0,02 0,824 0,4 0,000 -0,23 0,035 Increase of knowledge and skills of the weaker students 0,30 0,006 0,08 0,502 0,07 0,505 0,08 0,469 Increase of knowledge and skills of all students -0,11 0,331 -0,35 0,001 -0,24 0,029 0,51 0,000 Another interesting research issue was the relation between working experience of a teacher and sources of professional satisfaction they pointed to. The research has shown that there is no clear dependency between working experience and sources of professional satisfaction of a teacher. The highest result (0,20) was obtained in case of good relationships with the students which may lead to a conclusion that this factor is important for teachers with Sources of professional satisfaction of Secondary school teachers 83 © SECRETARIADO DE PUBLICACIONES UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA Cuestiones Pedagógicas, 24, 2014/2015, pp.75-88 longer professional experience, however, this correlation is not an explicit one. In other cases the experience-satisfaction factor indexes were slightly lower. When examining relations between choices of other sources of professional satisfaction it turned out that some of them are correlated. The choice of professional satisfaction sources in the relationships with students area (maintaining discipline, successes of students in competitions, increase of knowledge and skills of weaker students, increase of knowledge and skills of all students) is correlated with choice of a professional source in the area of relationships with colleagues (feeling appreciated) and personal achievements (professional promotion rank, awards and distinctions, professionalism). Relations between the analysed variables are of average intensity, the link between increase of knowledge and skills and professionalism is the clearest one. The research results show that the choice of successes of students in competitions and feeling appreciated are correlated. Other relationships are not as strong, though also of statistical importance. This means that the teachers who consider their own professionalism to be the greatest source of professional satisfaction also value high increase of skills and knowledge of their students. Teachers, for whom awards and distinctions are the greatest source of professional satisfaction have more often pointed to successes of students at competitions as source of professional satisfaction. These two correlations are the most important for the research results. Relationships between the two remaining variables are less intensive. For the teachers who can maintain discipline the professional promotion rank seems to be of importance and not professionalism, although the latter is not as distinctive. These teachers have the least often pointed to increase of knowledge and skills of their student as a source of professional satisfaction. Teachers who need to be appreciated by others care most about increase of knowledge and skills of weaker students. The research concerned also definition of factors influencing teacher’s motivation to work which were provided in the open questions. The motivating factors chosen by teachers are going to be presented in a descending order, according to the number of groups of factors sharing similar meaning. Most of the responses concerned successes of students, increase of their knowledge and skills, engagement both of the skilled and weaker students, developing students’ interest in the subject, good students’ results and motivating the students to learn. Another significant group of responses concerned appreciation of their work by supervisors, students, teachers and colleagues. Respondents have also mentioned good relationships to students, other teachers, school management and parents, as well as good atmosphere at work, significantly motivate them to work. Some respondents find money and decent remuneration and support from school management and other teachers motivating. The next open question concerned advantages of working as a teacher. Presentation of the results will be carried out in the same manner as in the previous paragraph, groups of similar meanings described in the descending order. Most teachers have pointed to work with young people and contact with other people as advantage of the profession. Another important factor were holidays and predictability of the days off. Some respondents also mentioned lack of boredom, monotony and routine and the variety of professional activities. Some teachers say that thanks to work they can realize their passions and interests and they can influence the way they work. Certain also appreciate the possibility of contributing to formation of another person and sharing knowledge. Teachers also mentioned other sources of professional satisfaction which were not included in the survey: possibility to observe the development of students, remuneration and working with young people.