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Teacher pride and job satisfaction
Teachers were asked to indicate how often they were satisfied with the various aspects of their job. The question that was asked was ‘How often do you feel the following ways about being a teacher?’. Teachers were asked to respond on a four-point scale with the options: ‘Never’, ‘Rarely’, ‘Sometimes’, or ‘Often’.
The responses shown in the sections below are from teachers who reported experiencing feeling these ways either ‘Sometimes’ or ‘Often’.
Teacher responses by proportion of students
Table TT2.12 show the percentage of students with a teacher who is either ‘Sometimes’ or ‘Often’ experiencing satisfaction in these areas of their role.
Across the subscales, a very high proportion of students (more than nine out of ten) had teachers who ‘Sometimes’ or ‘Often’ were content with their profession (93%), found their work meaningful and purposeful (98%), were enthusiastic about their job (97%), and were inspired by their work (93%).
A high proportion of students had teachers who were also overwhelmingly proud of their jobs (97%) with similar proportions (95%) wanting to continue in the profession.
A noticeably lower proportion was, however, observed for teacher’s salary. Only 64% of students had teachers who were ‘Sometimes’ or ‘Often’ content with their salary. This is a work hygiene factor which may cause some dissatisfaction in the profession.
Teacher satisfaction and teacher characteristics
From the responses to the seven statements about teachers’ satisfaction and pride in their work, a regional scale was formed for teacher job satisfaction. Higher scores on this scale mean higher levels of teacher job satisfaction.
Each teacher’s scores on this scale were analysed against several demographic factors, including: gender (male or female), age group (either 20–35 or over 35 years old), teaching experience (either less than 10 years’ experience or more than 10 years’ experience), and highest qualification (either below degree level or degree level and higher). Across the region, teachers who were over 35 years old had higher job satisfaction scores than teachers below 35 years old.
In Federated States of Micronesia, female teachers were more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than were male teachers. Students whose teachers had been teaching for less than 10 years or had qualifications lower than a degree were also more likely to be satisfied with their job than those with more teaching experience or with a degree or higher qualifications.
What does this mean?
High proportions of students had teachers who were satisfied with and proud of their jobs. A lower proportion of students had teachers who were content with their salaries – salary levels had the lowest satisfaction rating out of all the job satisfaction items.
There may be an association between teachers’ gender and their job satisfaction. The findings suggest that female teachers tended to have higher levels of job satisfaction than teachers below 35 years of age. The findings also suggested that teachers with less than 10 years’ experience or a qualification less than a degree also tended to have higher job satisfaction.
