Teacher Job Satisfaction in a Secondary in West Kazakhstan

Question: Discuss the factors that affect the job satisfaction of teachers. Answer: Introduction In order for any education system to be successful, it must have highly motivated and satisfied teachers. Teachers are the main drivers of knowledge in schools; they are the catalyst between students and knowledge. They are the pivot on which the entire education system rests, or better still, the backbone of education. In ancient India, they were compared to gods and regarded as perfect beings. Teaching was also regarded as a sacred and holy duty. (Rao, 2003: 116). However, today teaching is not regarded with same respect. In fact, in comparison to professions such as: medicine, engineering, and law, teaching is a lower ranking profession. Teachers do not enjoy the same respect and status of doctors or lawyers. This coupled with others factors has affected negatively on their morale and esteem. For example, they are the least paid compared to other professions (Rao, 2003: 116). Teaching has been degraded over time, and this has led to negative attitude towards the profession. Teachers no longer feel great and all-knowing, as they used to feel in the old days. Most teachers would attest to the fact that, they are not proud to be teachers. And given any other chance, will abandon the profession. Some studies have shown that about 29% of teachers leave the profession after the first 3 years of service, while others show that about 50% leave the service after 5 years (Bilz, 2008). This certainly is a worrying trend. In any venture, happiness and job satisfaction is the key. When people are happy and satisfied with what they are doing, they are likely to be more productive. There is no other place where this is more applicable than in the teaching profession(Qualls, 2008: 78). Teachers with a high job satisfaction bring enthusiasm to a classroom: impacting positively to the learning environment. Therefore, job satisfaction is very critical to the motivation of teachers, and increasing their productivity. It is in this regards that this study was done: to understand the main factors that affect teachers job satisfaction. Methodology In this study, questionnaires were used for data collection. They were structure in a way that they would not take more than ten minutes of the respondents time. Also the anonymity of the respondents was guaranteed. Findings and discussions Profile of respondents In this study, 53.3% of the respondents interviewed were female, while 46.7% were male. The age category of the respondents was as follows: between 20-29 years, they were 33.3%; between 30-39 years, they were 40%; between 40-49 years, they were 20%; and above 50 years, they were 6.7%. This data shows that most of the teachers are young: between the 20-39 years. These are the most active and productive people in the society. Our motivations shape our ethics at the individual and professional level. It is the driving force behind successful ventures (Sercombe, 2010). This is especially true for young people without experience. Most of the teachers, about 33.3%, have teaching experience of more than 15 years. While 26.7% have 1-5 years experience, and the rest have each 20%. From the data it seems that most of the teachers that have a lot of experience, and remain in the teaching profession compared to those with 5-15 experience. While those that are new to the profession are also many: about 26.7 %. This shows that there are some factors that lead the percentage of newly recruited teachers to reduce from 26.7% to 20%. It seems as though most of the teachers leave the profession when they have worked for about five years maximum. However, teachers who have worked in the profession for long, seem to have adapted to the challenges and therefore have the highest percentage. Analysis of job satisfaction level When the respondents were asked the extent of their satisfaction on teaching. Only about 20% are dissatisfied. Some of the reasons given are: a lot of paper work; limitations such as unavailable individual room for foreign languages study. Also challenges posed by large groups of students, which are difficult to handle. Some are young teachers and expect more support from experienced teachers and feel that they are subjected to a lot of pressure from the administration, and students that do not want to learn. Other disgruntled teachers cite low salary and too much pressure, not just from the administration, but also from students and parents. The main reasons that comes out clearly is that teachers are unhappy with too much paper work (they feel that it is unnecessary), pressure from students, parents and administration and unnecessary inspections. 46.7% of the respondents were satisfied. Some of the reasons cited by the satisfied teachers were: some feel that they are useful for their students and parents respects them; some have been assigned higher positions such as deputy principal, which motivates them since they feel it is more prestigious than just teaching; others cited a good salary as the main reason why they were satisfied. But what came out clearly is that most of the teachers are satisfied because of the job environment: good pay, promotion and enjoy collaborating with their colleagues. About 33.3% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, they were indecisive. This is mainly because they felt that their satisfaction depends on the job situation. Sometimes they are satisfied and sometimes they are not. Therefore they understand the dynamics of the teaching profession, and can neither complain nor praise the profession. Factors leading to job satisfaction The main factors that lead to their job satisfaction are, students interests in the subjects taught, and the working environment, with a percentage of 66.7. This are followed by opportunities for training, at 46.7 percent; sufficient positive feedback and opportunities for promotion at 26.7 percent; autonomy to make changes and job security at 20 percent; and pay salary at 13.3 percent. This shows that, teachers are mostly not motivated by a higher salary, but on students interest in their subjects and a good working environment. Generally, teachers are more satisfied with their job when they are given the freedom and a conducive environment to teach (Wilches, 2007: 245-275). Teachers should be given full control and freedom to teach: this would in essence give them confidence and job satisfaction. Factors leading to job dissatisfaction The main factor for job dissatisfaction, which was reported by 73.3 percent of the respondents is low pay/salary. This is followed by the pressure to meet deadlines at 46.7 percent; too much work and lack of time for family and home are reported by 26.7 percent of the respondents; lack of promotion opportunities, poor students behavior level and lack of autonomy are reported by 13.3 percent of the respondents; and 6.7 percent of the respondents reported, school management, job security and lack of training and development opportunities, are the main challenges. This clearly show that, teachers are demoralized by low pay. They feel as though their profession is not valued, which makes them dissatisfied. low pay makes teaching seem like an inferior profession (Anastasiou and Papakonstantinou, 2014: 37). Most of the teachers do not think that, lack of training, job security, and school policy and management, have a major negative effect on their job satisfaction. Reasons for leaving the teaching career When the respondents were asked whether they had ever considered leaving the teaching profession, most of them (about 86.7 percent) answered yes. Only about 13.3 percent answered no. This clearly shows that majority of the teachers are not satisfied with the profession and given an alternative, they would gladly leave. When asked why, about 92.3 percent of the respondents, reported low pay as the main reason. Followed by 53.8 percent who reported lack of opportunity to progress. Again low pay is seen as the main factor that affects job satisfaction. A study that was done by (Madi Abdullah and Uli, 2009: 10) also showed the same statistics, depicting low pay as the main factor that makes teachers dissatisfied with the profession. Factors affecting their work-life balance Most of the respondents (about 93.3 percent) reported that less unnecessary paperwork would improve their work-life balance. Followed by less pressure on inspection visits. Studies show that most teachers report that being observed and evaluated causes them to have negative emotions (Tun et al., 2015: 554-568). When teachers are subjected to stressful working conditions that might not be necessary, such as unnecessary paperwork and stressful inspections, they are demoralized. Teachers should be given the freedom to teach and provide guidance to students without unnecessary interruptions. These stressful conditions affects their both their working conditions and their life outside school. Chances that they would be working as teachers in ten years of time Most of the teachers do not know and are uncertain as to whether they would be working as teachers in 10 years of time. This was reported by 60 percent of the respondents. Only 40 percent answered that they would still be working as teachers. When the working conditions are not conducive for the teachers, it is obvious they would want to seek greener pastures somewhere else, and that is why most of them are not sure whether they would be working in the same profession for more than 10 years. Suggestion on what the government should do to improve the experience of teaching About 93.3 percent of the respondents reported that they would like the government to restore national pay and conditions. While 73.3 percent would want the government to give teachers more freedom over what and how they teach. This is in resonance with other studies that showed that teachers classroom autonomy is an important factor in the determination of the level of job satisfaction (Walker, 2016). The government should in this case review teachers salary and working conditions, in order to improve on their job satisfaction. Teachers are very important people in the society and they need the governments support: to listen to their grievances and act in their favor. Conclusion From this results it can be noted that most of the teachers are comfortable with the profession and only a small percentage is unhappy. This can be interpreted to mean that the majority of the teachers are happy and enjoy working as teachers. However this cannot be used to ignore the minority who are dissatisfied. It is important to understand the reasons why they are discontented. This is because discontented teachers are usually demoralized to work, and as discussed in the paper, affects negatively the learning environment in a learning institution (Moore, 2012: 2-6). References Anastasiou, S., Papakonstantinou, G. (2014) 'Factors affecting job satisfaction, stress and work performance of secondary education teachers in Epirus', International Journal of Management in Education, Vol.8, no.1, July, pp.37 Bilz, J.A. (2008) Job Satisfaction and Teacher Career Stages,[Online], Available: https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=1dw54YOroVMC [15 July 2016] Madi Abdullah, M., Uli, J. (2009) 'Job satisfaction among secondary school teachers', Jurnal Kemanusiaan,Vol.13, Jun, pp.10 Moore, C.M. (2012) 'The Role of School Environment in Teacher Dissatisfaction Among U.S. Public School Teachers.' SAGE, Vol.2, no.1, February, pp. 2-6 Qualls, L.A. (2008) 'Factors that Affect Job Satisfaction Among Teachers in Two Selected Milwaukee Charter Schools', Capella University, United States of America, pp. 78 Rao, D.B. (2003) Job Satisfaction Of School Teachers: Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi, pp.116. Tun, B., nand, Y., Gndz, B. (2015) 'Inspection and teachers emotions: An emotional evaluation of inspection', J. Hum. Sci. Vol.12, pp.554568. Walker, T. (2016) Teacher Autonomy Declined over Past Decade, New Data Shows [Online], Available: https://neatoday.org/2016/01/11/teacher-autonomy-in-the-classroom/ [15 July 2016] Usma Wilches, Jaime. (2007) 'Teacher Autonomy: A Critical Review of the Research and Concept beyond Applied Linguistics'. kala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, num. Enero-Diciembre, pp. 245-275.