Working Conditions Influencing Junior School Principalship as a Satisfying Profession: A Cross-Country Comparative Study

Abstract

Although prior studies have extensively investigated the effect of working conditions upon professional satisfaction, the cross-national variance in the effect remains largely understudied due to technical or financial restrictions. The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) provides an opportunity to investigate the cross-country differences in the impact of working conditions upon principals’ professional satisfaction. The current study attempts to investigate the overall and specific effects of principals’ workplace environment satisfaction, rewards satisfaction, and workload stress on their professional satisfaction in 47 countries included in the TALIS 2018. The results indicate that workplace environment, rather than the typically regarded effort-reward issues, is the most powerful contributor to individual principals’ professional satisfaction across 47 countries, while, in countries with low overall professional satisfaction, rewards satisfaction and workload stress are more powerful predictors for principals’ professional satisfaction on the country level. This study may inform policymakers in school principal stimulation and retention that effective practice to stimulate and/or retain school principals may vary across countries and research findings derived from data on the individual level may not be applicable to practice on the country level.

A systematic literature review of TALIS secondary research: Trends and future directions

“…These studies highlighted the significant correlation between school organisational structure and context with principal job satisfaction. Moreover, a distinct study showed that the workplace environment stands as the most powerful predictor of principals' professional satisfaction (Ning et al., 2022). Additionally, studies utilising TALIS and PISA datasets show how principal job satisfaction, studied as an independent variable, indirectly influences student learning outcomes (Huang et al., 2019; Kılınç et al., 2022).…”

Öğretmenlerin Liderlik Özyeterliği ile Okul Müdürü Olma İstekleri Arasındaki İlişkide Liderlik Etme Motivasyonun Aracılık Rolü

“…Bununla birlikte, dünya genelinde okul müdürü olmak isteyen öğretmenlerin sayısı her geçen yıl azalmaktadır (Anderson, Brien, McNamara, O'Hara ve McIsaac, 2011). Sürekli artan sorumluluklar, önemli kararların verilmesi bağlamında sınırlı yetkiye sahip olma ve düşük ücret gibi etkenler okul müdürlüğü pozisyonunu öğretmenler açısından daha az talep edilen bir görev haline getirmektedir (Heffernan, 2021;Ning, Liu ve Cui, 2022). Okulların nitelikli liderlere her zamankinden daha fazla ihtiyaç duyduğu bir zamanda, işin yorucu doğası öğretmenlerin müdür olma isteğini olumsuz yönde etkilemektedir (Doyle ve Locke, 2014).…”