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School leader pride and job satisfaction
School leader responses by proportion of students
Table SLT3.6 shows the number of students under the leadership of a school leader who is either ‘Sometimes’ or ‘Often’ experiencing satisfaction in these aspects of their role.
School leader satisfaction and school leader qualities
From the responses to the seven statements about school leaders’ satisfaction and pride in their work, a regional scale was formed for School leader job satisfaction. Higher scores on this scale mean higher levels of school leader job satisfaction.
What does this mean?
High proportions of students had school leaders who were generally satisfied with and proud of their jobs. A smaller proportion of students had school leaders who were content with their salaries. This suggests that most school leaders are satisfied in their job, but many sometimes feel dissatisfied with their salaries. Salary is frequently a contributing factor in labour movements and other phenomena so should be understood further.
Some school leaders had higher job satisfaction scores than others. School leaders over 40 years of age tended to have higher job satisfaction than school leaders between 20 and 40 years of age. Also, school leaders who had below degree level qualifications had higher job satisfaction scores than school leaders with degree level or higher qualifications. Interestingly, an opposite association was noted in the region. At the regional level, school leaders with degree level or higher qualifications tended to have higher job satisfaction than those with lower-level qualifications.
